Average cost per bed-day in specialised mental health inpatient services 

Rationale

Specialised mental health inpatient services provide patient care in authorised hospitals. To ensure quality of care and cost-effectiveness, it is important to monitor the unit cost of admitted patient care in specialised mental health inpatient services. The efficient use of hospital resources can help minimise the overall costs of providing mental health care and enable the reallocation of funds to appropriate alternative non-admitted care. 

Target

The 2023-24 target for average cost per bed-day in specialised mental health inpatient services is $1,876. Improved or maintained performance is demonstrated by a result below or equal to target. 

Results

Commentary

EMHS delivered specialised mental health inpatient services at a cost per bed-day $1,867, which is marginally lower (by $9) compared to the target rate $1,876, and it has performed better ($289 less) compared to the 2022-23 actual result of $2,156. 

Average cost per bed-day in mental health inpatient services is favourable against the target, despite an increase in the number of bed-days in 2023-24 when compared to the immediate prior year (2022-23), therefore demonstrating that the additional mental health bed-days were provided cost effectively. The delivery of these additional mental health bed-days resulted in a decrease in the average cost per bed-day, going against the trend of other service delivery areas who experienced increased average costs due to inflationary cost pressures and wage indexation growth. 

While there is no noticeable trend across the reported years, performance has remained relatively steady. This is a good outcome given the many challenges experienced in recruiting mental health practitioners and the resources needed to treat and support people with complex mental health needs, which generally results in increased costs.