CENTRAL Gippsland Health Service has shown an improvement in a number of key performance areas, according to a State Government report.
The Victoria Health Services Performance Report revealed the hospital admitted 3279 patients during the final three months of 2011, up from 3136 admissions in the same period 12 months earlier.
During the period of the report, the CGHS emergency department saw 4412 patients, up from 4166 presentations during the same period in 2010.
It provided a total of 7503 bed-days to patients in the three months to the end of December, an increase from 7437 bed-days from 12 months earlier.
The report also revealed that in the final three months of 2011:
One hundred per cent of category one emergency patients, requiring immediate treatment, were treated immediately on arrival;
Eight-six per cent of category two patients were treated within the benchmark 10 minutes of arrival, up from 63 per cent in 2010;
Eight-six per cent of category three patients were treated within the required 30 minutes of arrival, an increase from 76 per cent from 2010;
Seventy two per cent of category four patients were treated within an hour of arrival, up from 68 per cent in the previous three months;
Ninety-four per cent of category five patients were treated within two hours of arrival, up from 90 per cent at the end of 2010;
Eight-eight per cent of admitted emergency department patients were transferred to a ward bed within the benchmark eight hours, up on 83 per cent in the previous three months;
Eight-six per cent of emergency department patients were discharged home within the benchmark four hours, up from 85 per cent in the same period in 2010;
A 25-minute median time to treatment for all CGHS emergency department patients, an improvement of four minutes on the same period the previous year; and
A very high 98.2 per cent of ambulance patients transferred into the hospital within 40 minutes of arrival in the December quarter.
Health service chief executive Frank Evans was extremely happy with the results.
“A lot of work has gone into emergency department access and other areas,” he said.
“We are happy with the outcome.”
While the results were positive, Dr Evans admitted there could be challenges in meeting standards likely to be set by national health reform, which he said the service would work hard to meet.
