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Date: 23 May 2012
Time: 17:46
Time to treatment in A&E
What does this indicator mean?
Time to treatment is the time from arrival at A&E to the time when a patient is seen by a clinical decision-maker who can diagnose the problem, decide the plan for the patient and start or arrange treatment if required.
What is good performance?
The time to treatment should be minimised with patients seen by a clinical decision-maker within 60 minutes (1 hour) of arrival. This may be too long for patients who present with more serious conditions such as stroke, heart attack or breathing difficulties for example.
How is UHB performing?
In March 2012 the average (median) time patients waited from arrival to treatment was 56 minutes. 95% of patients waited 140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes) or less. The latest available national performance data shows that the average (median) time patients waited from arrival to treatment was 50 minutes in December 2011.
One of the factors affecting the Trust’s median time to treatment is the gradual increase in the number of trauma alerts. UHB received 18.7% more in the first half of 2011 (222) compared to the same time period in 2009 (187). Although activity remains static, the casemix of patients has also slightly changed over time with a higher percentage of patients now arriving by ambulance.
What is UHB doing to improve performance?
UHB is working to continuously improve performance for this indicator over time. A review of the pathways for major and minor cases is being undertaken to ensure that all patients are seen by a clinical decision-maker at the most appropriate time.
An additional A&E Consultant started in September 2011 and will provide further senior clinical input. Clinicians are continuing to be reminded of the need to record the actual time of treatment in the clinical notes so that performance against this measure is not affected by retrospective data entry of treatment times.
UHB data quality
Trusts are expected to have less than 5% of patients with a missing treatment time. In March 2012 all UHB patients included in this indicator had a treatment time recorded.
