SWAN Hill District Health staff and patients have welcomed
healthy figures on hospital performance this year.
The statistics for the
fist three months to the end of March show that 96.8 per cent of patients who
arrived at the Swan Hill Hospital in an ambulance were transferred within 40
minutes — well above the state average of 79 per cent.
The median time for
treatment of emergency department patients has halved since the same period last
year, from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.
Ninety per cent of emergency patients
were treated within the “desirable time”. And of these patients, 87 per cent
stayed for four hours or less, which was better than the statewide benchmark of
80 per cent.
Hospital chief executive officer Ted Rayment said it was an
“excellent” result.
“Our board are very pleased with our results and how we
compare on the league table,” he said.
“We’re always trying to improve our
ongoing processes and to get better at that, we do look to improve times and
services.”
But Mr Rayment said in some areas, such as sub-acute care and the
emergency department, ailing facilities were holding the hospital back.
For more on this story, see Friday’s edition of The Guardian (24/5/13).
