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ED Measures and Outcomes

Improving Emergency Department Visits in Wales: A New Approach

When you visit an Emergency Department (ED) in Wales, you want to receive timely and effective care tailored to your needs. While the current measurement system relies on the 4 and 12-hour targets, it doesn't fully capture the patient's experience. To address this, we've developed three new measures to give a more comprehensive understanding of ED visits across all Health Boards in Wales.

The Three Measures:

  1. Time to Triage: This measure tracks the time from a patient's arrival to when they are assessed by a triage nurse. Triage determines the urgency of care needed based on a patient's condition.

  2. Time to Clinician: We measure the duration between a patient's arrival and when they are seen by a healthcare professional for treatment. This could be a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare provider.

  3. Outcome of Attendance: This measure focuses on what happens after the patient's visit. It includes whether the patient requires follow-up care, admission to the hospital, or treatment elsewhere.

By using these measures, Health Boards can allocate resources more effectively, leading to an improved patient experience. With better data, we can ensure that patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

We collect and analyse data monthly to provide a national overview of ED visits. The latest data, available in our PowerBi presentation, covers November 2024. Additionally, individual pages display data dating back to February 2022 for Time to Triage, Time to Clinician, and ED Discharge Destination.

The next scheduled refresh is Thursday 16 January 2025 at 09:30am

Our approach to measuring ED visits in Wales aims to prioritise patient experience and improve healthcare delivery. By focusing on timely triage, clinician access, and post-visit outcomes, we strive to enhance the quality of emergency care across the nation.