Quality of Care Report - Ballarat Health Services

Psychiatric ServicesThe Future Working and CaringTogetherA new agreement between Ballarat’sdoctors and Psychiatric Services aims tostop people suffering a serious mentalillness from “slipping through thecracks”.The Working and Caring Togetherdocument is an alliance betweenBallarat Health Services PsychiatricServices and general practitioners tomake sure patients at highest riskreceive the right treatment whendischarged from hospital.The alliance was prompted aftergeneral practitioners were not aware ofwhat previous treatment patients hadreceived when being treated atPsychiatric Services.The Working and Caring Togetherdocument also involves the West VicDivision of General Practice and CentralHighlands Division of General Practicestretching from Bacchus Marsh to theSouth Australian border. It is estimatedgeneral practitioners help treatbetween 75 and 90 per cent of patientswith a mental illness who live in thecommunity.Accessible andResponsible CareIncreasing demand acrosshealth serviceThe ageing population and highburden of disease rates in theGrampians region have contributed toa significant increase in demand atBallarat Health Services. For the 2007-2008 financial year BHS hasexperienced unprecedented demand inthe emergency department, inpatientadmissions, operating theatre andoutpatients attendances. Births for the2007-2008 financial year were sevenless than the record figure of 1199 inthe 2006-2007 financial year, howeverin the past five years births haveincreased by 18.61 per cent or 187more babies.Reasons for the record increase include:• Ballarat’s general practitionershortage;• The ageing population across theregion;• Sicker patients;• Greater referrals from outsideBallarat;• A high burden of disease in theGrampians region, particularlydiabetes and cardiovascular disease;• The extension of Ballarat HealthServices; and• Regional centres no longer providingobstetric services.How long will it take to be seenif you come to the emergencydepartment at Ballarat HealthServices?Despite a record 43,192 peoplepresenting to our emergencydepartment people still need to beseen as soon as possible, this happensaccording to the severity of their illness:Category 1 – resuscitation- seenimmediately.Category 2 – emergency- seen within10 minutes.Category 3 – urgent-seen within 30minutes.Category 4 - semi urgent-seen withinan hour.Category 5 - non-urgent-seen withintwo hours.Waiting times for each category aremonitored and reported to theAustralian Council on HealthcareStandards every six months. BallaratHealth Services have managed tomaintain a constant level of servicedespite treating a record high numberof attendances with more complexpatients for the 2007-2008 financialyear.The Emergency Department hasachieved the targets set by theDepartment of Human Services, forpatient categories despite the increasesin patients presenting with morecomplex conditions.During this time the departmenttreated an additional 3,165 emergencypresentations, an increase of 7.94 percent on the previous year.19Ballarat Health Services Quality of Care Report 2007-08