Introduction

Why patient experience matters

In 2015, there was an independent review of the Victorian healthcare system’s quality and safety. The review findings were published in the 2016 report, Targeting zero. The report stated that people who had a good experience of the healthcare system:

• have better results from health care
• feel better about their health and wellbeing
• are more likely to follow a plan to help them get better once they are back at home
• are less likely to need to go back to hospital
• get better quality care.

The Victorian Government is investing in our emergency healthcare system to provide better experiences for patients. To do this, the Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI) gathers information about people’s experience of emergency care services. Victorian health services use this information to make improvements that help people have better experiences and be more involved in making decisions about their care.

About this report

This report is for the Victorian community. It describes Victorians’ experiences of emergency care. This includes receiving services from an emergency ambulance or emergency care from public emergency departments across Victoria.

The results show:

• what aspects of emergency care contribute to a positive or negative overall experience
• the factors such as background, gender or language spoken at home that affect people’s experiences
• examples of work being done by ambulance and emergency department services to improve people’s experiences.

The information in this report is from two Victorian Healthcare Experience Surveys (VHES) conducted by VAHI:

• adult emergency ambulance services
• adult public emergency department services.

The adult emergency ambulance survey does not include air ambulance or planned ambulance transport.

Acknowledgements

VAHI would like to thank everyone who contributed to this report, particularly the members of the report’s expert advisory group: 

• Constantina Angelopoulos – Senior Policy Officer, Department of Health and Human Services
• Alan Eade – Chief Paramedic Officer, Safer Care Victoria
• Monica Finnigan – Director Clinical Governance and Performance, Ambulance Victoria
• Lizzie Flemming-Judge – Emergency Care Clinical Network Consumer Representative
• Jarrod Hunter – Nurse Practitioner, Wimmera Health Care Group, Horsham
• Anita Panayiotou – Senior Project Officer, Safer Care Victoria
• Meagan Ward – Manager Consumer Insights, Safer Care Victoria