Latest quarterly report on NSW hospital performance released
The latest Hospital Quarterly report from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) shows NSW public hospitals provided more services during April to June 2015 and emergency department and elective surgery performance stabilised.
BHI Chief Executive, Dr Jean-Frederic Levesque, said during April and June 2015 the trend of more patients attending emergency departments, and more patients being admitted to hospital in NSW continued.
"Compared to the same time in 2014, there were on average about 900 more patients visiting emergency departments, and about 400 more admissions to NSW public hospitals every week," Dr Levesque said.
The report shows that emergency department performance is largely stable this quarter, however,the percentage of patients who left the emergency department within four hours dropped slightly.
"During April to June 2015, the proportion of patients who left NSW emergency departments within four hours was 73%. This result is one percentage point lower than the same quarter in 2014, but six percentage points higher than the same quarter in 2013," Dr Levesque said.
More than 628,000 people visited emergency departments in NSW during April to June:
- For patients who arrived by ambulance, 85% had their care transferred to emergency department staff within 30 minutes, unchanged compared with the same quarter last year
- The times patients waited to start treatment in the emergency department were largely stable across all triage categories compared to the same quarter last year
- The median time patients spent in the emergency department was two hours and 42 minutes, one minute longer than the same quarter last year.
The report shows elective surgery performance is largely stable this quarter with 97% of patients receiving their elective surgery on time.
"This is a strong result that has been stable over the past two years in the April to June quarter," Dr Levesque said.
There were more than 54,000 elective surgeries performed, and across NSW:
- 100% of urgent elective surgery was performed on time
- 98% of semi-urgent surgery was performed on time
- 96% of non-urgent surgery was performed on time.
"On average we have seen an increase in the amount of time patients wait for non-urgent surgery. This quarter one year ago half of patients waited 32 weeks or more for non-urgent surgery, however, this year, in the same quarter, half of patients waited 33 weeks or more," Dr Levesque said.
"By examining the information in the report, we can see how the state's hospitals are dealing with demand, how they compare to each other, where they excel, and where there might be opportunities to improve."
Five years of detailed results for more than 80 hospitals in NSW are available on BHI’s online interactive portal Healthcare Observer at bhi.nsw.gov.au/healthcare_observer