❓ WA Parliamentary Question on Notice regarding wait times for surgery assessment appointments and procedures in public hospitals from 2011-2013. The answer reveals decreasing median wait times for assessment appointments but inability to provide comprehensive data on total wait times due to data quality issues.
AnsweredQoN 321Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(1) What was the average wait time for an appointment to be assessed for surgery waitlists from January to March in: (a) 2011; (b) 2012; and (c) 2013? (2) How does the Government currently monitor and assess the time patients must wait for a surgery assessment appointment? (3) What was the total average time people waited between referral for surgery assessment and their procedure from the months of January to March in the following years (please list specific to the relevant outpatient clinic and procedure): (a) 2011; (b) 2012; and (c) 2013?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
1 August 2013
Responded by
Minister for Health
Response time
51 days
(1)(a) Median wait time for an appointment January to March 2011: 35 days.
(b) Median wait time for an appointment January to March 2012: 33 days.
(c) Median wait time for an appointment January to March 2013: 30 days.
Data Source: Non Admitted Patient Activity and Wait List Data Collection (NAPAAWL DC).
Time Period: Jan to Mar 2011, Jan to Mar 2012 and Jan to Mar 2013. Run Date: 2/07/2013.
(2) The Department of Health produces a biannual public report "Referrals to Public Outpatient Surgical Clinics". The third edition of this report is due for release in August 2013.
The report publishes the number of outpatients waiting for a first appointment at a surgical clinic at a metropolitan tertiary hospital, and their median waiting time, and the number of outpatients who have had their first appointment at a surgical clinic at a metropolitan tertiary hospital, and their median waiting time.
The waiting time to first appointment is calculated from the date the referral is received to the date of the first appointment, where the patient attended the appointment i.e. patients who did not attend are not included in the calculation.
(3)(a)-(c) This question is not able to be answered as it would require specific and accurate linkage of patients across two Data Collections which are at different levels of reporting capacity. Although the Elective Surgery Waiting List (ESWL) collection is robust and of very sound quality, the Data Collection including Outpatient data is still developing, and in the process of addressing data quality concerns. Without a reliable link between a patient's surgery from the ESWL and the relevant referral to a surgical outpatient clinic, the data generated could lead to misinformation.
Producing the data by outpatient clinic and surgical procedure adds considerable complexity to the data compilation, as there are many outpatient surgical clinics and a broad range of ESWL procedures.
NOTES:
1. Waiting Time is defined as the period from referral received date to date of first appointment. Median is reported rather than mean as it is the standard measure used in reporting of waiting times and it removes the effect of outlier cases.
2. Outpatients data are sourced from four feeder systems - TOPAS (most metropolitan sites plus Bunbury), HCARe (most rural sites), webPAS (Fremantle, Kaleeya, Swan District and Kalamunda plus Great Southern sites) and the Allied Health System (AHS) (used by Allied Health staff at most metropolitan sites).
3. Joondalup Health Campus and Peel Health Campus data are not included as the Department has not yet finalised the extracting of outpatient data from their Patient Administration Systems.
4. The data are from TOPAS and webPAS only, as HCARe and AHS do not capture referral information and therefore a waiting time calculation cannot be performed for those cases.
5. The webPAS referral information from Great Southern sites is still being tested for reliability.
(b) Median wait time for an appointment January to March 2012: 33 days.
(c) Median wait time for an appointment January to March 2013: 30 days.
Data Source: Non Admitted Patient Activity and Wait List Data Collection (NAPAAWL DC).
Time Period: Jan to Mar 2011, Jan to Mar 2012 and Jan to Mar 2013. Run Date: 2/07/2013.
(2) The Department of Health produces a biannual public report "Referrals to Public Outpatient Surgical Clinics". The third edition of this report is due for release in August 2013.
The report publishes the number of outpatients waiting for a first appointment at a surgical clinic at a metropolitan tertiary hospital, and their median waiting time, and the number of outpatients who have had their first appointment at a surgical clinic at a metropolitan tertiary hospital, and their median waiting time.
The waiting time to first appointment is calculated from the date the referral is received to the date of the first appointment, where the patient attended the appointment i.e. patients who did not attend are not included in the calculation.
(3)(a)-(c) This question is not able to be answered as it would require specific and accurate linkage of patients across two Data Collections which are at different levels of reporting capacity. Although the Elective Surgery Waiting List (ESWL) collection is robust and of very sound quality, the Data Collection including Outpatient data is still developing, and in the process of addressing data quality concerns. Without a reliable link between a patient's surgery from the ESWL and the relevant referral to a surgical outpatient clinic, the data generated could lead to misinformation.
Producing the data by outpatient clinic and surgical procedure adds considerable complexity to the data compilation, as there are many outpatient surgical clinics and a broad range of ESWL procedures.
NOTES:
1. Waiting Time is defined as the period from referral received date to date of first appointment. Median is reported rather than mean as it is the standard measure used in reporting of waiting times and it removes the effect of outlier cases.
2. Outpatients data are sourced from four feeder systems - TOPAS (most metropolitan sites plus Bunbury), HCARe (most rural sites), webPAS (Fremantle, Kaleeya, Swan District and Kalamunda plus Great Southern sites) and the Allied Health System (AHS) (used by Allied Health staff at most metropolitan sites).
3. Joondalup Health Campus and Peel Health Campus data are not included as the Department has not yet finalised the extracting of outpatient data from their Patient Administration Systems.
4. The data are from TOPAS and webPAS only, as HCARe and AHS do not capture referral information and therefore a waiting time calculation cannot be performed for those cases.
5. The webPAS referral information from Great Southern sites is still being tested for reliability.
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