Southern Health District scores top marks for ED performance

The Bureau of Health Information Healthcare Quarterly report was released on Wednesday, March 13, measuring key performance indicators from October to December. It found the SNSWLHD ranks markedly higher than state averages for ED treatment times.

More than 30,000 people presented to EDs across the reporting period, a 1.3 percent increase on the same time last year. Almost 80 percent of these started treatment on time, which is better than the NSW average (68.3 percent).

Recommended waiting times in the ED range from 10 minutes for emergency (triage 2) to 120 minutes for non-urgent (triage 5), which is a standardised measurement from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

SNSWLHD chief executive Margaret Bennett hailed the result.

"Almost all planned surgery in Southern was performed on time during the reporting period, a remarkable effort by staff and a great outcome for our patients," she said.

"Our staff have implemented a range of improvement strategies over the past 12-18 months to achieve these impressive results.

"Strategies include daily huddles across all facilities, ongoing ED education programs to strengthen nursing triage protocols, regular reviews of clerical processes and systems, as well as management of discharges and delays.

Looking at the numbers by hospital, Moruya recorded the district's best (83.5 percent) result of on-time treatment in the ED. The hospital recorded a 4.7 percent drop in the number of patients leaving emergency within four hours of treatment compared to the previous quarter (64.8 percent).

Batemans Bay Hospital recorded improved results for the quarter as did Bega's South East Regional Hospital. South East recorded big improvements in transfer from paramedics to ED staff within 30 minutes (9.1 percent increase from last quarter), leaving ED within four hours (7.2 percent increase) and elective surgeries performed on time (4.8 percent increase).

Goulburn recorded modest improvement (1.8 percent increase) in patients starting ED treatment on time though did see a large jump of ED attendances during the quarter, increasing more than 10 percent.

More than nine in 10 patients (91 per cent) were transferred from ambulance to ED staff within the 30-minute benchmark time.

"The most important outcome of this work is that patients in Southern NSW are given the very best care, as quickly as possible," Ms Bennett said.

Across NSW, 58.1 percent of patients spent less than four hours in the ED, which is a slight improvement on the record low of the previous quarter.

There were almost 800,000 ED attendances in the state, with the majority (63.3 percent) occurring in urban or metropolitan hospitals.