ORANGE Hospital’s emergency department has improved its patient waiting times in the past year for the treatment of urgent and non-urgent medical conditions.
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Performance figures released by the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) yesterday showed 71 per cent of the 7107 patients who visited the emergency department from October to December 2013 left the facility within four hours of arrival.
In the most urgent cases, the triage two category where the patient’s life was imminently threatened, the median time taken to start treatment was five minutes, down from six minutes during the same period last year.
The Orange Hospital figures are also better than the state average, which shows patients’ median wait times in the triage two category, for patients with conditions such as severe burns or chest pains, was eight minutes.
In the triage three category, where a patient’s condition is potentially life threatening, the median time to start treatment at Orange Hospital dropped from 19 minutes to 17 minutes in the past year, beating the state average of 20 minutes.
When it came to less-serious medical conditions such as sprained ankles and ear aches, median wait times also dropped by one minute to 25 minutes when compared to the same period the year before.
Patients with non-urgent injuries such as cuts or abrasions saw a large reduction in the median wait time dropping from 26 minutes to 20 minutes in the past year.
tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au