Waiting Times for Emergency Department Care: Percentage of Patients Whose Length of Emergency Department Stay Is 4 Hours or Less
Identifying Attributes
Care Settings
Hospital Care
Country
Australia
Publishing Organisation
Australian Health Performance Framework, New South Wales Bureau of Health Information (BHI)
Type of Quality Indicator
Outcome
IOM Quality Dimension
Timeliness
Domain
Wait Times and System Planning / Access
Defining Attributes
Definition
For all patients presenting to a public hospital emergency department (including publicly funded emergency departments), the percentage of presentations where the length of the emergency department stay is 4 hours or less.
Numerator
Number of emergency department presentations where emergency department stay length is less than or equal to four hours.
Denominator
Number of emergency department presentations.
Exclusions
Records are excluded for which: length of stay < 0, presentation date or time is missing, or physical departure date or time is missing.
Use of Risk Adjustment
No
Risk Adjustments
None
Stratifications
By triage category, state/territory, hospital and Local Health Network.
Collection and Reporting Attributes
Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods
Non-admitted patient emergency department care national minimum data set (NAPEDC NMDS)
Frequency of Data Collection
Annually
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
365
Reporting Frequency
Annually
Reporting Frequency in Days
365
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
No
Source and Reference Attributes
Technical Specifications
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)
No
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
02 December 2025
Contents
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Date Modified 02 December 2025