More emergency department patients "seen on time"

The latest report on emergency department care in Australian hospitals by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows the number of patients “seen on time” for their urgency category is rising.

The report, Australian hospital statistics 2012-13: emergency department care, shows that in the financial year 2012–13, almost three-quarters of emergency department patients were “seen on time” — meaning patients received treatment from a medical officer or nurse within an appropriate time for the urgency category.

Between 2008–09 and 2012–13, the number of emergency department visits that were “seen on time” rose from 70% to 73%.

However, the proportion of patients that were “seen on time” in 2012–13 varied across the states and territories — from 51% in the Australian Capital Territory, to 78% in New South Wales.

Between 2008–09 and 2012–13, most states and territories reported improvements in emergency department waiting time statistics. South Australia recorded the largest improvement in the proportion seen on time, which rose from 64% to 75%. Queensland and Tasmania also achieved notable improvements in the proportion seen on time over this period.

Nationally, almost 100% of resuscitation patients (those requiring treatment immediately) and 82% of emergency patients (those requiring treatment within 10 minutes) were seen on time.

Overall, in 2012–13, 50% of patients received treatment within 19 minutes of presenting to the emergency department and 90% received treatment within 1 hour and 41 minutes of presentation.

The report shows that more than 6.7 million emergency department presentations were reported by public hospital emergency departments in 2012–13, equating to just over 18 000 presentations each day.

The full report is available at http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129544913.