ORANGE hospital is the only hospital in the Western NSW Local Health District to meet statewide benchmarks for treating patients in the emergency department.
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The latest Bureau of Health information quarterly report shows waiting times at Orange hospital for all triage categories meet or exceed benchmarks.
Bathurst hospital and Dubbo hospital both failed to meet recommended treatment times for patients in the most serious cases, triage two and three.
Triage two is the second most serious category allocated to a patient in the emergency department and can include cases of chest pain and severe burns, while triage three can include moderate blood loss and dehydration.
Orange hospital met the statewide benchmark to treat 80 per cent of all triage two patients within 10 minutes, however Bathurst hospital treated just 50 per cent within this time and Dubbo hospital was at 70 per cent.
A spokesperson from the Western NSW Local Health District said Orange Health Service has implemented a number of initiatives which have improved their models of patient care.
“We have seen 84 per cent of patients within the triage category two NSW Health benchmark, 80 per cent seen within 10 minutes, between July 2011 to December 2011,” the spokesperson said.
“Last data collected was for February [2012], in which we met 92 per cent of benchmark.”
The recommended treatment time of 75 per cent of triage three patients within 30 minutes was also met in Orange, however Bathurst managed to treat just under 70 per cent, with Dubbo only 50 per cent.
nadine.morton@ruralpress.com
