Benchmarking Best Care

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to December 2024 have recently been released, that show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

The reports below show a summary, as well as a 4 year trend in all hospital acquired complications. 

For Western Health as a whole:

1.9% of our admitted episodes had a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 2.2% at our peers),

2.5% of admitted patients experienced a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 3.4% at our peers).

Pleasingly our rate of hospital acquired complications rate over the past 4 years has been progressively dropping.

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2025 show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of delirium.

Delirium:

The rates of delirium at Western Health is in the interquartile range when compared to our peers, and keeping consistently stable. This is a fantastic result.

Well done to all of our nurses on this remarkable result.

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2025 have recently been released, that show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of falls. The following data looks at the rate of falls that result in an intracranial haemorrhage, fractured neck or femur or other fractures.

Falls with Injury:

After 3 quarters of a drop in the falls with serious injury, we have had 2 quarters where this has increased again.

The continuing efforts of our Falls Champions implementing the actions from the Falls Improvement Plan is essential to keeping this at this very low level.

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2025 have recently been released, that show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of hospital acquired infections. Hospital acquired infections include urinary tract infections, surgical site infection, pneumonia, blood stream infection, central line and peripheral line associated bloodstream infection, multi-resistant organisms, infection associated with prosthetics/implantable devices, gastrointestinal infections and other high impact infections.

Hospital Acquired Infections:

The rates of hospital acquired infections at Western Health has been consistently low.

Remember, you can impact these results through:

• Gloves should always be clean: gloves should always be changed between patients, and clean gloves are always required when undertaking any procedure. Hand hygiene is required between changes of gloves, and alcoholic hand rub must never be applied to gloves.
• Hand Hygiene: ensure you undertake the 5 moments of hand hygiene and that there is alcoholic hand rub present at every bed side and point of care.
• Correct skin preparation: whenever an invasive device is being inserted, chlorhexidine skin preparation must be utilised. An alcohol wipe is never an appropriate skin preparation.
• Antiseptic non-touch technique (ANTT): when inserting, accessing, dressing or removing any invasive device, ANTT needs to be utilised. Also please ensure that you use a clean stainless steel dressing trolley, not a kidney dish, bedside table or the patient’s bed.
• Only insert a device if it is needed: Always ‘hesitate before you cannulate’. Does the patient really need that device inserted? Never insert a device ‘just in case’. Any invasive device is a potential source of infection, so let’s minimise them where we can.
• Remove the device as soon as it is not needed: As soon as a device is no longer needed, remove it as quickly as possible. Ask medical staff to change IV orders to oral orders where appropriate. The longer devices are in situ, the greater the risk of an infection occurring.

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2025 have recently been released, that show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of Medication complications, which include drug related respiratory complications/depression, haemorrhagic disorder due to circulating anticoagulants, movement disorders due to psychotropic medication and serious alteration to conscious state due to psychotropic medication.

Medication Complications:

At Western Health as a whole the rates of medication complications per 10,000 episodes has been consistently near the 25th percentile.

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2025 have recently been released, that show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of pressure injuries. The following data looks at Western Health’s rate of Stage III, Stage IV, unspecified and unstageable pressure injuries, and suspected deep tissue injury.

Pressure Injuries:

The rate of hospital acquired pressure injuries has continues to be low when compared to our peers. This is excellent news – let’s keep this going and maintain this position!

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2025 show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of Severe Perineal Laceration, which includes third and fourth degree tear during vaginal delivery.

Severe Perineal Laceration:

The rates of severe perineal tears during vaginal delivery at Western Health maternity services has increased over the past few quarters to the highest result in over 3 years. There continues to be a strong focus on this area.

This has unfortunately made us now in the 75th percentile when compared to our peers.

In October-December 2024, 4,495 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Adult Inpatient survey. 716 participated in the Adult Inpatient survey, with a response rate of 16%.
Annual participation.

In the last four quarters, 12,188 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Adult Inpatient survey. 2,013 participated in the Adult Inpatient survey, with a response rate of 17%.

In October–December 2024, 3,706 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Adult Emergency survey. 550 participated in the Adult Emergency survey, with a response rate of 15%.

In the last four quarters, 11,956 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Adult Emergency survey. 1,585 participated in the Adult Emergency survey, with a response rate of 13%.

In October–December 2024, 671 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Maternity survey. 117 participated in the Maternity survey, with a response rate of 17%.

In the last four quarters, 2,095 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Maternity survey. 424 participated in the Maternity survey, with a response rate of 20%.

In October–December 2024, 267 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Paediatric Inpatient survey. 32 participated in the Paediatric Inpatient survey, with a response rate of 12%.

In the last four quarters, 701 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Paediatric Inpatient survey. 108 participated in the Paediatric Inpatient survey, with a response rate of 15%.

In October–December 2024, 679 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Paediatric Emergency survey. 63 participated in the Paediatric Emergency survey, with a response rate of 9%.

In the last four quarters, 2,184 people across Western Health were invited to participate in the Paediatric Emergency survey. 264 participated in the Paediatric Emergency survey, with a response rate of 12%

Western Health Adult Specialist Clinics received fewer than 10 responses for 2024. This means that there were insufficient responses to display results for October-December 2024.