Incidence of pulmonary embolism: a comparison of two Australian hospitals

In this retrospective observational study, we noted that there were significantly more admissions at the public than the private hospital due to both a principal (1.87 vs 0.83 per 1000, P < 0.001) and secondary diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) (3.10 vs 2.01 per 1000, P = 0.002), with no difference in mortality. There was a highly significant increase in secondary PE diagnoses at the private hospital (R(2) = 0.68, β = 0.14, P = 0.003) over the study period. Despite disparate rates of PE between the two hospitals, there was no difference in mortality, suggesting there may be an element of overdiagnosis.