Australian Health Performance Framework: PI 2.5.3–Waiting times for elective surgery: proportion admitted within clinically recommended time, 2020

Collection and usage attributes

Elective surgery as defined in the National Elective Surgery Waiting Times Data Collection (NESWTDC).

The NESWTDC includes data collected for patients on elective surgery waiting lists managed by public acute hospitals and/or state and territory health authorities, who are yet to be admitted to hospital and for patients who have been removed from an elective surgery waiting list (for admission or another reason). The NESWTDC includes the date the patient is listed for care and the date the patient is removed from the elective surgery waiting list (removal date).

Waiting time is as defined in Elective surgery waiting list episode—waiting time at removal, total days N[NNN]. Calculated by jurisdictions by subtracting the listing date for care from the removal date, minus any days the patient was waiting with a less urgent clinical urgency category than their clinical urgency category at removal, and excluding days where the patient was not ready for care.

Waiting times are calculated for patients whose reason for removal was:

1. Admitted as an elective patient for awaited procedure by or on behalf of this hospital or the state/territory.
2. Admitted as an emergency patient for awaited procedure by or on behalf of this hospital or the state/territory.

For the purposes of reporting, patients are reported as the final urgency category they were when treated. When a patient's urgency category changes, the patient’s waiting time at removal is calculated as per the Guide for use for Elective surgery waiting list episode—waiting time at removal, total days N[NNN].

Analysis by state and territory based on location of service.

Presented as a percentage.

100 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

Number of patients removed from elective surgery waiting lists who received surgery within the clinically recommended time.

Number of patients who received elective surgery.

2019–20—State and territory, by urgency category.

Local Hospital Network, by urgency category (not reported).

Hospital, by urgency category (not reported).

Most recent data available for 2020 Australian Health Performance Framework reporting: 2019–20.

The scope of the indicator is all hospitals reporting to the National elective surgery waiting times data collection. It includes episode-level data on patients added to or removed from waiting lists for elective surgery which are managed by public hospitals.

Representational attributes

N[NN].N

Indicator conceptual framework

Data source attributes

Accountability attributes

Australian Health Performance Framework

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Source and reference attributes

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Relational attributes