Barwon Health lays it on the table

BARWON Health has launched its new- look website, and, for the first time, will publish up- todate statistics on its performance.

The website contains tracking data from the Geelong Hospital emergency room, as well as elective surgery waiting lists.

Latest figures show the Geelong Hospital emergency department is well ahead of national targets in seeing the most emergency cases on time over the past seven days, but people are waiting longer than four hours for the less urgent cases.

Previously, performance data was only available quarterly through the State Government.

‘‘The data will be updated weekly and will ensure that our community is informed at all times,’’ Barwon Health chief executive David Ashbridge said on his blog.

‘‘ The data will also be accompanied by commentary and key health messages; providing a high-level view of what is influencing demand for our services and what we are doing to meet it.’’

As technology advances, Barwon Health is hoping to be able to use real- time data to one day give people actual waiting time estimates within emergency departments.

The new website can also be translated into 19 different languages, and has other accessibility features built in.