Widespread Improvements in Public Hospital Performance Across Australia

New data showing widespread improvement in public hospital performance across Australia has been released today by the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA).
Improvement in the percentage of patients who had urgent surgery on time has improved, as has the percentage of patients leaving emergency departments within the four hour target period.
There was little change in the results across public hospital peer groups for non-urgent surgery.
The data was for the January to March 2013 quarter and was compared with the same quarter in 2012.
Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia were the only states to have any of their larger public hospitals record statistically significant declines in emergency department performance.
“While this data shows generally improved performance, we need to continue the pressure for further improvement,” Ms Plibersek said.  “States and territories will have to lift their game if they are to meet both their surgery and their emergency department targets by 2015,” Ms Plibersek said.
Hospitals are divided into peer groups by the NHPA for the purposes of meaningful and fair comparison. The peer groups are: major metropolitan hospitals, large metropolitan hospitals, major regional hospitals, large regional hospitals, and medium hospitals.
More detailed performance information, including at a hospital level, is publicly available on the MyHospitals website - www.myhospitals.gov.au