Latest report released on performance of NSW public hospitals
The latest Hospital Quarterly report from the Bureau of Health Information shows NSW public hospitals maintaining or improving performance during July to September 2014.
Bureau of Health Information Chief Executive, Dr Jean-Frederic Levesque, said during the quarter there were small increases in the number of patients visiting NSW emergency departments; the number of hospital admissions; and the number of elective surgeries performed.
"The report shows hospitals have maintained or improved against most performance measures. NSW continues to provide 97% of elective surgery on time, which is a consistent result for the past six quarters," Dr Levesque said.
"In the emergency department, the times that patients waited to begin treatment have generally improved, and the total time spend in the emergency department also decreased compared to one year ago.
"More patients were admitted to hospital from the emergency department than the same time one year ago. The average time that admitted patients are spending in hospital is unchanged."
More than 611,000 patients visited emergency departments in NSW during July to September:
- For patients who arrived by ambulance, 80% had their care transferred from ambulance to emergency department staff within 30 minutes, similar to the same quarter last year
- For urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent category patients, the times spent waiting to start treatment were the lowest recorded for any July to September quarter over the past five years
- 69% of patients left the emergency department within four hours. The majority of NSW public hospitals reported an improvement for this measure
- The total time patients spent in the emergency department was the lowest recorded for any July to September quarter over the past five years.
There were more than 58,000 elective surgeries performed, up 1% on the same quarter last year. Across NSW, 97% of patients received their surgery within the recommended timeframe, matching performance in the same quarter last year:
- 100% of urgent elective surgery was performed on time
- 97% of semi-urgent surgery was performed on time
- 96% of non-urgent surgery was performed on time.
This issue of Hospital Quarterly has been re-designed to present information about the volume and type of services provided and performance measures with a new structure and format. The report now includes five year trend graphs to enable tracking of performance over time.
Detailed results for more than 80 hospitals in NSW are now available on BHI’s online reporting tool Healthcare Observer at www.bhi.nsw.gov.au/healthcare_observer