Overview

Monitoring the performance of our health system helps to ensure that services delivered in Australia are effective, efficient, appropriate and are achieving good outcomes for patients and the wider community. Reporting of safety and quality aspects also ensure that health care is being delivered in line with current professional knowledge and standards. Together, this kind of information can help policy makers and consumers make informed choices about available services. 

More reports and statistics on health care quality & performance can be found under AHPF Health indicators, MyHospitals and International comparisons. 

Latest findings

SAB infection rates in public hospitals have remained stable over the past 5 years. 1 in 8 (13%) patients did not see a specialist when they felt they needed to. Patients with high health needs were more likely to report not seeing a GP or specialist when needed. All jurisdictions had a SAB infection rate lower than the national benchmark of 2.0 cases per 10,000 patient days. 1 in 4 (24%) patients did not see a GP when they felt they needed to. Nearly half (45%) of patients who did not see a specialist when needed said it was because of cost. In 2018–19 public hospitals had 1,573 SAB infections during 21.0 million days of patient care under surveillance. Half (50%) of patients who did not see a GP when needed said it was because they could not get an appointment. 82% of public hospital SAB infections were treatable with commonly-used antibiotics.

Latest reports

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Australia's health performance

The latest on Australia's health and health system performance

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Highlights

94%of all Australian children aged 5 were fully immunised in 2017
18% of ‘golden staph’ bloodstream infections in 2017–18 were resistant to commonly used antimicrobials
More than 9%of all hospital bed days in 2016–17 were for potentially preventable hospitalisations
About 2.0%of hospitalisations experienced a potentially preventable complication
Search and compare performance information for more than 1,000 Australian public and private hospitals
431,704people at the end of 2015 were alive who had been diagnosed with cancer in the previous 5 years
72%of emergency department patients in 2017–18 were ‘seen on time’, including almost all of those requiring immediate care
Australia's Health Performance Frameworkprovides a navigation tool to support reporting on Australia’s health and health care performance