External validation of the Health Care Homes hospital admission risk stratification tool in the Aboriginal Australian population of the Northern Territory.

Objective This study aimed to externally validate the Commonwealth's Health Care Homes (HCH) algorithm for Aboriginal Australians living in the Northern Territory (NT). Methods A retrospective cohort study design using linked primary health care (PHC) and hospital data was used to analyse the performance of the HCH algorithm in predicting the risk of hospitalisation for the NT study population. The study population consisted of Aboriginal Australians residing in the NT who have visited a PHC clinic at one of the 54 NT Government clinics at least once between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2017.