Hard work pays off on targets

26 May 2015

Hard work pays off on targets

Focus and hard work are paying off for Hawke’s Bay District Health Board as it hits the shorter stays in Emergency Departments target in the 2014/15 quarter three national targets released today.

Chief executive Kevin Snee said the Emergency Department target could only be achieved by managing the whole of hospital better. The shorter stays in Emergency Department target is 95 percent of patients will be admitted, discharged or transferred from the Emergency Department within six hours.

A special programme of work that involved a large chunk of hospital services was initiated late last year called AIM24/7, and that’s now seeing results, Dr Snee said. The hospital was able to flex better under pressure and patient flow was managed much more carefully. Clinical work streams had been set-up and made good progress.

“This is only the second time we have achieved this target and I’m very pleased with the work and focus from everyone involved as we work to constantly improve patient care.
This has also been achieved when we have had 10,697 presentations to the Emergency Department, which is 370 more, compared to the same quarter last year.”

Dr Snee said he was particularly pleased with this quarter’s set of results – the DHB had met five out of the six health targets and Health Hawke’s Bay (PHO) had achieved all three of their targets.

“No other health system nationally had done better. The district health board is delivering on its commitment to the community, while at the
same time it has also delivered a financial surplus for the past four consecutive years and is on track to deliver another this financial year. This has meant we have had money to invest in staff, facilities and services, and while finances will always be tight we are in a lot better position than many other DHBs.

“We know we still have work to do, especially in addressing the needs of people who have hip and knee pain and we will be putting a lot of emphasis on that in the coming months – but I’m pleased with progress,” he said.

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