Australia has a high quality health system, however the provision of healthcare in Australia is largely episodic and often fragmented. This is caused by a lack of coordination across healthcare providers and parts of the healthcare system, in addition to a focus on meeting immediate health needs, and disconnected funding models and layers of accountability. Preventing unnecessary hospital admissions is a specific objective of healthcare reform in Australia, with the aim of improving patients’ outcomes, reducing pressure on hospitals, and enhancing health system efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This process is generally referred to as hospital avoidance.

The Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research, the research arm of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA), facilitated a one-day Think Tank on 23 May 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, bringing together health system thought leaders and Deeble Institute academic members to answer the question, How should the health system respond to the growing pressure to reduce the rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations?
Further details are available on AHHA’s website.

The Think Tank Communique is available here

Media Release - Hospitalisations - preventing the preventable necessary, but not easy

Presentations included:

• Opening Address by Minister for Health, The Hon Greg Hunt MP
   
• Myth busting hospital avoidance
  Professor Richard Reed, Head, Discipline of General Practice, School of Medicine, Flinders University, DIrector, Primary Health Care Research Information Service (PHCRIS)
  View this presentation
   
• Value capture as a means of financing patient-centred health care homes across Australia
  Professor Stephen Jan, Head, Health Economics and Process Evaluation Program, The George Institute and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney
  View this presentation
   
• Characteristics of older people who represent to the Emergency Department within 30 days of discharge
  Associate Professor Laurie Grealish, Griffith University and Gold Coast Health
  View this presentation
   
• Primary care: system improvement and integration
  Jodi Briggs, Executive Director, Innovation and Integration, Eastern Melbourne PHN
   
• Thunderstorm Asthma "All Lined Up"
  Paul Holman ASM, Director, Emergency Management, Ambulance Victoria
   
• Alternative models of hospital care for older people – the Kilcoy connect experience.
  Dr Tracy Comans, Principal Research Fellow, Griffith University
  View this presentation
   
• End of life hospitalisations differ for older Australian women according to death trajectory: a longitudinal data linkage study
  Dr Melissa L Harris, Newcastle University
   
• Acute hospital diversion of dental patients presenting to Emergency Departments
  Associate Professor Matthew Hopcraft, Dental Health Services Victoria
  View this presentation
   
• Value Based Healthcare
  Dr Deborah Cole, Chief Executive Officer, Dental Health Services Victoria
  View this presentation