Notes on the data: Hospital admissions

Same-day admissions for dialysis for kidney disease, 2017/18 to 2020/21

Policy context:  Same-day admissions for dialysis for kidney disease account for a large proportion of same-day admissions, particularly for Indigenous Australians, who were admitted for dialysis at 12 times the rate for other Australians in 2017/18 to 2018/19 [1].

Reference

1. PHIDU (download the Indigenous Status Comparison workbook here).

Notes:  

Introduction

The data presented are of the number of same-day admissions for dialysis for kidney disease, including both haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, International Classification of Disease (ICD-10-AM) codes Z49.1 and Z49.2. There are two main types of dialysis: peritoneal, which occurs inside the body and can be performed almost anywhere, usually in the home setting; and haemodialysis, which occurs outside the body and is most often conducted in a hospital or satellite setting. The reason for presenting these data separately from overnight admissions is that they represent many repeat visits by a relatively small number of patients, who may have multiple admissions in a week. Their inclusion with, for example, admissions of males, or of females can dramatically alter the geographic distribution of these other categories of admissions. This is particularly evident in regional and remote areas where dialysis facilities are located, and where those using them may have moved to live to be near the facility.

Note that for reports and publications that results are not comparable between jurisdictions due to the variations in scope of hospitals for individual states and territories.

Publishing of Queensland data by Indigenous Area

As requested by Queensland Health, the Indigenous Area (IAREs) below were combined to ensure confidentiality.

Confidentiality of data

Counts of less than five admissions have been suppressed.

Data are not available for private dialysis units in Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory, to protect the confidentiality of the small number of private facilities in these jurisdictions. As a result, where data are published for public dialysis units and all dialysis units, the 'all units' data for these jurisdictions have also been confidentialised, as their publication would allow identification of the confidentialised private dialysis units. The 'all units' data in other jurisdictions have also been confidentialised where publication of public and all units data would allow identification of private hospital data confidentialised due to small cell sizes. The decision was made to confidentialise the 'all units' rather than the 'public' figure as admissions to public dialysis units comprise the majority of admissions, both overall and from the most disadvantaged areas.

Geography:  Data available by Indigenous Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic outcomes (based on IRSEO) and Remoteness Area

Numerator:  Same-day admissions for dialysis for kidney disease - (Z491 to Z492)

Denominator:  Estimated resident Aboriginal population, weighted average of PHIDU-estimated populations, June 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Detail of analysis:  Indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 (respective population); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Indigenous ABS estimated resident population (produced as a consultancy for PHIDU), 30 June 2021.

Source:  Compiled by PHIDU using data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, supplied on behalf of State and Territory health departments for 2017/18 to 2020/21; ABS estimated resident population (produced as a consultancy for PHIDU), 30 June 2021.

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