Burwood, ten months on
Burwood Hospital went live on Cortex in February 2024. Health New Zealand has since analysed what changed, at Burwood and on the West Coast, using the health system’s own data.
- 19%
- shorter average stay at Burwood in the ten months after go-live
- 16%
- fewer readmissions at Greymouth's Te Nīkau Hospital
- 18–23%
- fewer complaints across Burwood and the West Coast
The length of stay figure compares the ten months after go-live with the years before it: 8.25 days in 2022, 7.92 in 2023, 6.38 with Cortex. The readmission reduction at Te Nīkau includes a 13% drop in General Medicine, and the complaint numbers cover both sites since the move from paper.
These measurements sit alongside the 2017 Canterbury trial, where independently measured length of stay fell 20% on the trial wards. The 2017 numbers came from one hospital testing a new tool. The 2025 numbers came from Health New Zealand assessing a platform already running at four hospitals, and they follow the same pattern.
Cortex now runs at Christchurch, Burwood, Ashburton, and Te Nīkau hospitals, at Hawke’s Bay, and with Nurse Maude in the community.