Werribee Mercy Hospital will fast-track patients with minor issues through its emergency department in a bid to cut all waiting times.
Mercy Health chief executive of health services Linda Mellors said that in peak times from January, emergency department patients with minor problems will be treated more quickly by a dedicated team consisting of an experienced doctor and nurse.
They will treat emergency department patients in triage categories four and five, which include those with mild bleeding, foreign bodies in the eye, head injuries, possible bone fractures or symptoms such as rashes or minor aches and pains.
Under the present system, all patients who attend Werribee Mercy Hospital emergency department are treated according to their triage category, with category one, two and three patients taking precedence.
Currently, 52 per cent of category four patients are treated within one hour; 75 per cent of category five patients have to wait up to two hours.
The new process follows recent Victorian Health Services Report figures showing that patients presenting at Werribee Mercy are waiting longer as population growth strains hospital services.
The report found that although every category one patient was treated immediately in the September 2015 quarter, the hospital failed to meet state government benchmarks for category two and three patients.
Dr Mellors said category four and five patients made up a significant amount of the total presentations to Werribee Mercy’s emergency department, and she believed this new process would help bring down waiting times.
“The new process is widely accepted as being an effective model in emergency departments,” she said. “When higher acuity patients occupy the acute treatment cubicles, lower acuity patients may be required to wait for long periods to be assessed.
“In turn, when lower acuity patients occupy the acute treatment cubicles, they become unavailable for higher acuity patients, contributing to overall access block.”
