Length of stay

Hospital emergency departments provide urgent care for seriously ill and injured Victorians. The length of stay is the period of time between when a patient arrives and departs from an emergency department.

Tap the buttons below for specific data about length of stay in emergency departments. You can filter by hospital.

Scroll down further for more information about the data (measures).

About the data

The above measures look at:

  • non-admitted patients staying 4 hours or less
  • percentage of patients staying 4 hours or less
  • patients staying longer than 24 hours.

About non-admitted patients staying 4 hours or less

The number and percentage of patients treated in an emergency department who were not transferred to a hospital inpatient bed and whose length of stay was equal to or less than 4 hours.

About percentage of patients staying 4 hours or less

The 2022-23 statewide target for the percentage of emergency department patients to leave an emergency department within four hours (the 'four hour rule') is 81%. The 'four hour rule' means they will be admitted to hospital, transferred to another hospital for treatment or discharged within four hours. The 2023–24 statewide target has not been finalised.

This is similar to the National Emergency Access Target.

About patients staying longer than 24 hours

The number and percentage of patients who have stayed in an emergency department for more than 24 hours. 

The 2022-23 statewide target for the number of patients who have stayed in an emergency department for more than 24 hours is zero. The 2023–24 statewide target has not been finalised.

Notes

  • Data source: Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD). Data extracted on 16 January 2024
  • Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) presentations have been excluded from the calculation of all emergency indicators
  • Results for the current financial year are preliminary and may change from quarter to quarter, final results will be available in November. Results from the previous financial year have been finalised
  • On 23 February 2023, Monash Health opened the Victorian Heart Hospital. The data displayed for the Victorian Heart Hospital from January to March 2023 represents the period from 23 February to 31 March.
  • Care needs to be taken when assessing results and comparing them to prior periods
  • * No results are available.