New figures show the average waiting time in Wollongong Hospital's emergency department improved in the December quarter.
Bureau of Health Information statistics covering October to December reveal the majority of seriously injured patients arriving at the ED received treatment within 31 minutes.
This is two minutes ahead of the state average and five minutes faster than the same period in 2011.
Patients with less urgent injuries, including sprained ankles and earaches, waited an average of three hours 23 minutes.
While this was an improvement on the previous year, it was still well above the state average.
An Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District spokeswoman said the figures showed a steady improvement in the performance of the emergency department.
The figures also show more patients who arrived at the ED by ambulance were transferred from stretchers to beds within the 30-minute target timeframe.
Seventy-four per cent of ambulance arrivals in the December quarter were transferred to hospital care within 30 minutes, compared with 64 per cent for the same period in 2011.
The health district spokeswoman said the hospital had implemented a range of "patient flow initiatives" both within the ED and throughout the hospital to improve transfer times.
"The hospital also continually reviews the way it delivers clinical services within the ED and a number of improvements have been achieved through redesign of the system by which patients are assessed and treated," the spokeswoman said.