MidCentral District Health Board improves second quarter health targets

26/02/2010 | MDHB Health Targets

MidCentral District Health Board made improvements in five out of the six national health targets in the quarter ending 31 December 2009, compared to the previous 30 September 2009 period. The reasons for the changes are explained below, but need to be read in conjunction with the Health Targets charts.

Shorter Stays in Emergency Departments:

Target - 95% of people presenting to the Emergency

Department are admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours.Improved result. During the December quarter more people (7383) presenting to the Emergency Department at Palmerston North Hospital were admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours than in the previous quarter. Improvements toward the target were made each month, with 80% of 3243 people presenting during December leaving the Emergency Department within six hours. MidCentral Health achieved a rate of 78.1% for the quarter overall. MidCentral Health continues to implement a number of initiatives throughout the hospital aimed at achieving this Health Target by the end of June 2010.

Improved Access to Elective Surgery:

MidCentral DHB has a target of 5451 hospital discharges for elective surgery by the end of June 2010. A total of 1307 MidCentral residents had an elective surgical procedure performed – 11 more elective surgery discharges than last quarter, but 137 short of target in November and December 2009.

Over half of the shortfall in target number of discharges was for tertiary level surgical services provided by other District Health Boards such as specialised cardiothoracic, neurosurgery and plastic surgery. MidCentral is committed to achieving the planned targets. Close monitoring and flexible, timely implementation of initiatives to achieve plan will continue over the coming months.

Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment:

Target - By the end of July 2010, everyone needing radiation treatment will have this within six weeks.

Improved result. Ninety-five (100%) MidCentral residents needing radiotherapy received their treatment within six weeks of their specialist assessment during the second quarter, compared to 97% reported in September. While there were some patients who elected to defer their treatment start dates for personal reasons, or who were having other clinical treatment at the time, there were no treatment delays because of constraints on the Cancer Centre at Palmerston North Hospital.

Increased Immunisation for two-year-olds:

Target - By July 2010, 85% of two-year-olds are fully immunised.

Improved result. For the three months ending December 2009, 489 of the 594 (82%) eligible two-year-old children had been fully immunised in the MidCentral district. The result reported for the first quarter was 76%, so a great improvement has been seen in this last quarter. MidCentral is confident it will achieve the target by the end of June 2010.

The immunisation programme continues to be promoted across the health sector and in particular in primary health care settings. Currently there are a number of children who are overdue their 15-month immunisation and who need to have this before they turn two years.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit:

Target - By July 2010, 80% of hospitalised smokers will be provided with advice and help to quit.

Improved result. During the quarter, 227 (24.4%) hospitalised smokers were offered advice and help to quit. This is a big improvement on the 14% that was reported for September (the baseline period). While there is still a long way to go toward achieving this new target, MidCentral Health has made some big gains over the last quarter – particularly during December when 43.1% of hospitalised smokers were offered advice and help to quit smoking.

MidCentral Health’s Smoking Cessation taskforce continues to implement a number of initiatives to help achieve the target. One of was the launch of the “ABC Smoking Cessation Campaign” in February, which aims to prompt providers to routinely ask about smoking status as a clinical “vital sign” and then provide advice and offer quit support to smokers. There is strong evidence that brief advice is effective at prompting quit attempts and long term quit success. The quit rate is improved further by the use of effective interventions such as pharmaceuticals, telephone, and face-to-face support.

Better Diabetes and Cardiovascular Services:

Improved result in the compilation target for the three measures. The result reported for the quarter ending December 2009 continues to show an improvement in the numbers of people who are accessing their free annual checks for diabetes. Just over a quarter (26%, 1164) of the total number of people estimated to have diabetes had their diabetes checks – on track toward achieving the annual target of 4473. Of the 1164 who had their annual checks during this period, 72.8% had their diabetes in good control – although stable, the result is not yet to target of 78%.

Primary care practitioners continue to show good results in ensuring that people have their risk assessments for cardiovascular disease (CVD) completed. 82% of the eligible population have had their laboratory tests for absolute CVD risk in the last five years – a further improvement on the good results for last quarter.

Contact: Communications Unit (06) 350-8945