When a patient attends an emergency department in Australia a triage nurse assesses the urgency of the patient’s condition and assigns them a triage category ranging from one to five on the Australasian Triage Scale. Hospitals with emergency centres measure the time taken for a patient to be seen in accordance with their assigned triage category.
At the St Andrew’s Emergency Centre patients are seen first by a trained triage nurse. The nurse will ask questions about the patient’s condition and record all necessary observations such as blood pressure, pulse and temperature. A doctor will then review and assess the patient’s condition – the urgency of the patient’s condition will determine how quickly this happens.
By capturing the percentage of patients seen within the timeframes recommended by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) we can measure St Andrew’s Emergency Centre’s performance.
The definitions of these measures are as follows:
| Category 1: |
Immediately life-threatening. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor within two minutes of arriving. |
| Category 2: |
Imminently life-threatening. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor within 10 minutes of arriving. |
| Category 3: |
Potentially life-threatening. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor within 30 minutes of arriving. |
| Category 4: |
Potentially serious. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor within 60 minutes of arriving. |
| Category 5: |
Less urgent. Patient should be seen by a treating doctor within 120 minutes of arriving. |
How we are working to improve St Andrew’s Emergency Centre wait times
Our Director of Emergency Medicine and the Emergency Centre team regularly review their performance and seek opportunities to improve by:
- Monitoring the number of ambulance presentations to our emergency centre
- Monitoring bed availability within the hospital for patient admission to the wards
- Regularly reviewing staffing levels (medical and nursing) to match activity levels within the centre
- Working with ward staff and bed managers to optimise bed access once an admitted patient is discharged