Australian Health Performance Framework: PI 2.5.8–Waiting times for emergency department care: time spent in the emergency department, 2020

Collection and usage attributes

See Non-admitted patient emergency department service episode—triage category, code N for description of each triage category.

An emergency department stay is the period between when a patient presents at an emergency department, and when that person is recorded as having physically departed the emergency department (regardless of whether they were admitted to the hospital, were referred to another hospital, were discharged, or left at their own risk). It includes any time spent as an admitted patient in the emergency department, but not in ‘short-stay units’.

The scope for calculation of this indicator is all hospitals reporting to the

Non-admitted patient emergency department care (NAPEDC) national minimum data set (NMDS) 2019–20  or NAPEDC national best endeavours data set (NBEDS) 2019–20

Calculation includes all presentations with a physical departure date/time in the reporting period, including records where the presentation date/time is prior to the reporting period. Invalid records are excluded from the numerator and denominator. Invalid records are records for which:

• Length of stay < 0
• Presentation date or time is missing
• Physical departure date or time is missing.

Calculation includes presentations with any Type of visit to emergency department.

Recording departure time

Emergency department (ED) stay length is the amount of time, measured in minutes, between when a patient presents at an emergency department, and when the patient physically departs the emergency department. It is calculated as per the guidelines included in the NAPEDC NMDS 2019–20 or NAPEDC NBEDS 2019–20:

• If the patient is subsequently admitted to this hospital (either short stay unit, hospital-in-the-home or non-emergency department hospital ward), then record the time the patient leaves the emergency department to go to the admitted patient facility.
  • Patients admitted to any other ward or bed within the emergency department have not physically departed the emergency department until they leave the emergency department.
  • If the patient is admitted and subsequently dies before leaving the emergency department, then record the time the body was removed from the emergency department.
• If the service episode is completed without the patient being admitted, then record the time the patient's emergency department non-admitted clinical care ended.
• If the service episode is completed and the patient is referred to another hospital for admission, then record the time the patient leaves the emergency department.
• If the patient did not wait, then record the time the patient leaves the emergency department or was first noticed as having left.
• If the patient leaves at their own risk, then record the time the patient leaves the emergency department or was first noticed as having left.
• If the patient died in the emergency department, then record the time the body was removed from the emergency department.
• If the patient was dead on arrival, then record the time the body was removed from the emergency department.
• If an emergency department physician certified the death of the patient outside the emergency department, then record the time the patient was certified dead.

Presentation time and date are the time and date of the first recorded contact with an emergency department staff member. The first recorded contact can be the commencement of the clerical registration or triage process, whichever happens first.

Analysis by state and territory is based on location of service.

Presented as number of minutes.

Number of minutes of emergency department stay at 50^th and 90^th percentile.

The 50^th and 90^th percentiles have been rounded to the nearest whole number of minutes.

The calculation is where:

n is the number of observations and

p is the percentile value divided by 100,

then n × p = i + f (where i is an integer and f is the fractional part of n × p).

If n × p is an integer, the percentile value will correspond to the average of the values for the i^th and (i+1)^th observations.

If n × p is not an integer, the percentile value will correspond to the value for the (i+1)^th observation.

2019–20—Nationally, by triage category.

Nationally, by triage category, by (not reported):

• admission status.

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

State and Territory, by triage category, by (not reported):

• admission status.

Local hospital network, by admission status (not reported).

Hospital, by admission status (not reported).

Some disaggregation may result in numbers too small for publication.

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

Representational attributes

[N]N:NN

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