Costs of children with medical complexity in Australian public hospitals.

Aim: To describe the hospital costs, hospital types and differences across states and territories for children with medical complexity cared for in Australian public hospitals.

Methods: Retrospective national administrative database study of 212 Australian public hospitals from six states (excluding Queensland) and two territories that submitted cost data to the National Hospital Costing Data Collection for 2010-2011. Participants included all hospitalised patients with comparisons between adults and children (17 years of age and younger), and adults with chronic diseases and children with medical complexity.