Ambulance response times in Perth are getting worse, including the most urgent callouts, according to St John Ambulance's annual report.
But the service defended the results, saying times were now improving because of State Government funding to employ more paramedics and call-centre staff.
In 2010-11, metropolitan ambulance response times were their worst in more than a decade with all three categories of urgency missing the required 90 per cent target.
Only 85.2 per cent of priority one calls were seen to within the mandated 15 minutes and 82 per cent of urgent calls were answered within the recommended 25 minutes. Just 74.3 per cent of non-urgent calls were dealt with within 60 minutes.
The report said the capacity and availability of ambulances, which was still inadequate last financial year, controlled response times.
But priority one response times improved in July, reaching 87.2 per cent, and would stay on the mend because of extra Government funding since last year.
In April, the Government agreed to fund an extra 309 ambulance paramedics and officers over four years, as well as another 12 ambulances and 10 patient transport vehicles over three years.
The $88 million upgrade was in response to a damning review in 2009 that found serious gaps in the organisation, including major inadequacies at its call centre.
It came after media reports which raised concerns about the controversial deaths of several patients in the care of the ambulance service.
Chief executive Tony Ahern said yesterday he was confident response times would hit the 90 per cent target over the next two years.
"The times had been deteriorating for some time before the new funding came on board last year so I don't think it would have been possible to turn around the figures until now," he said.
"But we're pretty comfortable with the numbers now."
Mr Ahern said revamping the service meant its operations were now more transparent, which was vital to maintain public confidence.
He conceded adverse reports about the service not coping had led to "horror stories" about people being reluctant to call for an ambulance.
"We heard about people who thought they were having a heart attack but didn't call us because they thought the service was under too much pressure," Mr Ahern said. "That is not something we would ever want to happen again."
Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://au.news.yahoo.com
Published: Monday, October 17, 2011
3.) | Daisee Daisee Daisee builds technology that empowers people to solve problems by making interactions simple and smart so they can have a more significant impact, be more productive and be better at what they do. We believe incremental improvements carry huge potency and provide exponentially greater change for the better. Genesys customers can now automate risk and quality management using Daisee’s speech and sentiment analytics and remediation workflow software. Daisee helps improve customer experience, ensure regulatory compliance, identify missed commercial opportunities & training requirements as well as provide valuable insights back to the business directly from the frontline – the true voice-of-... (read more) |
4.) | DialogTech DialogAnalytics™ Powered by AI, DialogTech’s DialogAnalytics analyzes conversations to provide marketing and sales teams a wealth of insights for smarter optimizations. With the power of conversation intelligence, you can learn which channels, ads, keywords, and webpages drive the best sales calls, if the caller converted, and more. AI analyzes how calls are handled at locations and call centers to detect issues that negatively impact ROI. See what percentage of calls go unanswered and who is best (and worst) at converting callers to appointments and customers. Get email alerts when phone leads are mishandled at locations so those leads can be called back right away. With DialogAnalytics, you can get a... (read more) |
6.) | Pointel CXi - Customer Experience Insights Pointel CXi, the IVR analytics platform, maps the entire customer journey and analyzes calls end-to-end to turn data into actionable insights. Centralized reporting is essential for seamless customer journeys, as it is critical to know where calls are transferred or abandoned. CXi generates multiple reports on IVR performance, the Customer-IVR interactions, and sticking points in the IVR that cause customers to struggle. CXi’s IVR Analytics platform provides a comprehensive understanding of customer engagement. Pointel Customer Experience Insights (CXi) delivers actionable information that enables businesses to reduce customer effort, operational costs and increase contact center effi... (read more) |
I am checking out all the amazing and daily updated content on ContactCenterWorld.com and networking with professionals worldwide
Send To Friends Post On My Wall