Introduction
Fair comparisons
Potentially preventable hospitalisation rates have been age-standardised to enable fairer comparison of rates between populations with different age structures by removing the influence of age.
Previous reports by the Authority peer grouped Medicare Local catchments based on socioeconomic status, remoteness and distance to hospitals to allow for fairer comparisons of results. The 31 PHN areas which replaced the 61 Medicare Local catchments are much larger in size and have greater diversity in their populations’ characteristics and have therefore not been peer grouped.
Instead, results for smaller local areas (SA3s) have been grouped into the following remoteness categories:
- Major cities
- Inner regional
- Outer regional
- Remote (includes Very remote).
Local areas in major cities have been further categorised by socioeconomic status, reported by:
- Higher
- Medium
- Lower.