Trends in access block 2011 to 2013: the Redcliffe National Emergency Access Target experience.

Objective To evaluate the impact of the introduction of National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) on access block and long-stay patients in Redcliffe Hospital ED, and to evaluate the possibility of forward compliance with the 2014 and 2015 NEAT thresholds. Setting and Design Redcliffe hospital is a major urban district hospital in Brisbane with more than 55 000 adult and paediatric patients per annum. We evaluated aggregate Emergency Department Information System data for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 to correlate presentations, NEAT compliance, access block and the number of long-stay patients in our department. Results There has been a significant reduction in both access block and our number of long-stay patients corresponding with improvements in NEAT compliance. Our forward analysis suggests that without substantial improvements in the NEAT for admitted patients, compliance with 2014 and 2015 thresholds is unlikely to be achievable. Conclusions NEAT has been a driver of significant improvements in access block at our institution. We see significant issues with raising the NEAT threshold to the proposed 90% in 2015, and support recent calls for re-evaluation and modification of the target.