Royal Children's Hospital puts wait times online to ease flood of phone calls
Posted
For the first time in Victoria, parents with sick children can find out the expected waiting time at the Royal Children's Hospital without making a phone call.
A new automated web portal, which can be accessed by smartphone or computer, has been launched to gives parents a real time update of the activity level at the hospital and an estimated waiting time.
The Health Minister, Jill Hennessy, said concerned parents wanting to know the expected waiting time made up 80 per cent of phone calls to the hospital on weekends.
The portal breaks down the hospital's activity level into three categories, ranging from "normal" to "extremely busy", with expected waiting times ranging from less than an hour to more than four.
The system uses existing Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), which are put through an algorithm to update the status on the website 24 hour a day.
EMR analyst and ED nurse at the hospital Peter Sloman said the project had largely been driven by families.
"Time and time again families are asking us, 'How long is the wait? Why didn't you tell us this beforehand, when it is a long wait?'" he said.
"The idea has come from families.
"Basically we're taking all the patients in the department and doing an algorithm to work out roughly how long we expect the wait to be. Again, it's broad strokes — but it's a great tool for parents to have."
Wait time queries flood hospital phones
Ms Hennessy said the portal would "relieve our world class children's hospital staff to get on with providing care".
"When your child is sick — particularly in the middle of the night — and you're freaking out about what you should do and where you should take them, the natural instinct of so many parents is to head straight to the children's hospital.
"So this is a new way that parents can find out: how long will the wait be?
"And then they can make a decision, 'Do I still want to go into the Royal Children's Hospital? Or should I go to my local GP or find another avenue of care?'"
The NSW Government operates a similar website that provides ED waiting times, but it offers the estimate at 61 hospitals across the state.
Victorian Government figures show in the three months ending in March this year, the hospital treated 17,468 patients, nearly 100 more than at the same time last year.
Parents may have 'better options'
Premier Daniel Andrews said that the website portal wasn't set up to discourage people from utilising health services.
"The key point is … that there could be time to wait, and sometimes and there could be other options," he said.
"There are many different services and the RCH website gives you a sense of what your child needs and now, for the first time, a key sense for how long it will take if you come here."
Mr Andrews hinted that the technology could be launched elsewhere, saying "part of the success of this is to look at maybe rolling this out at a number of other hospitals" and that "we'll have more to say about that" in the future.
Topics: maternal-and-child-health, health, adolescent-health, child-health-and-behaviour, infant-health, children, children---toddlers, children---preschoolers, melbourne-3000, vic
