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Hospital Looks To Improve Emergency Wait Times
Media information
For immediate release
Date: 26 March 2009
Hospital Looks To Improve Emergency Wait Times
Waiting in a hospital emergency department is not much fun, and something most people want to avoid.
Waikato Hospital's Emergency Department (ED) is implementing changes to its waiting system to lessen the pain for those who end up there.
Work on building a new waiting room just outside the current area has begun and is expected to be completed soon.
ED operations manager Jenni Yeates said the new waiting room will allow the current one to be turned into clinical space for patients who have already been seen by a nurse but waiting for a doctor.
"It'll be an extra stage added on to the waiting and triage process for patients that will ultimately keep the beds in ED for those in greater need.
"The most acute patients will continue to be seen first but the ones who don't need a bed will be kept in the waiting room and assessed while they wait.
"So it will feel like the waiting time isn't as long and all the necessary information such as test results will be on-hand when the doctor is available," she said.
Initial assessment will be in a private cubicle and if considered stable, the patient will move back into the waiting room instead of taking up bed space inside the department.
Ms Yeates said these changes are part of the hospital's streaming project looking at how patients move through ED.
"ED staff are working together to look at how we can improve this patient journey and how we can continue to work in a department that we have significantly outgrown," she said.
Staff are looking forward to the completion of Waikato Hospital's new Emergency Department and opening in early 2011.
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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