Waiting Time to Treatment

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Hospital Care
Country
Australia
Publishing Organisation
Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI): Victorian Health Services Performance
Type of Quality Indicator
Process
IOM Quality Dimension
Timeliness
Domain
Wait Times and System Planning / Access

Defining Attributes

Definition

Wait time between presenting at the emergency department and first being seen by a nurse or a doctor for treatment.

Numerator

The time in minutes (median and 90th percentile) between when a patient presented at the emergency department and when they were first seen by a nurse or a doctor for treatment.

Denominator

Number of patients presenting to the emergency department and seen by a nurse or a doctor for treatment.

Exclusions

Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) presentations have been excluded from the calculation of all emergency indicators.

Use of Risk Adjustment
No
Risk Adjustments

None

Stratifications

By urgency category and hospital.

Collection and Reporting Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods

Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD)

Frequency of Data Collection
Quarterly
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
91
Reporting Frequency
Quarterly
Reporting Frequency in Days
91
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
Yes

Source and Reference Attributes

Link to Measurement Tools
Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
Yes
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
02 December 2025