By 2031, the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District's (SESLHD) population is set to rise from 979,370 to almost 1.1 million residents. 1 The growing Sutherland Shire community has led to an increase in the number of emergency department (ED) presentations 2, resulting in the service becoming overwhelmed. Combined with an increasing and aging population, with an associated increase in chronic and complex disease, the New South Wales government has invested $88.5 million for infrastructure renewal and upgrade at The Sutherland Hospital.3 While the redevelopment project will address the inadequate infrastructure problem long-term, a reduction of 20 inpatient beds is anticipated during the redevelopment.
This project aims to reduce avoidable admissions into The Sutherland Hospital by 5% for patients presenting to the ED, enabling safe and timely discharge, and improving the use of alternate care pathways where appropriate by December 2023.
A range of patient programs aimed at hospital avoidance, prevention or inpatient alternatives exist across southern SESLHD. These primarily stand-alone services have different intake models, inclusion and exclusion criteria, funding sources and processes. Awareness and ease of referral needs to be implemented to ensure equity and timely access. Understanding the impact of these alternative models on patient ability to access care in the right place at the right time is vital to ensuring capacity availability to those who need it.
Our solutions were co-designed with key stakeholders for the project which resulted in two solutions and three quick wins to be implemented.
Solutions included:
- Creation of a Hospital In the Home (HITH) Service (including virtual care) for The Sutherland Hospital.
- Creation of a Care Coordinator/Navigator position (inclusive of virtual care).
The quick wins included:
- Relaunch of Southcare (Community) Services brochures and develop YouTube Video to be embedded in the ED orientation.
- “Relaunch” Rapid Assessment, Diagnosis and Intervention Unit Sutherland (RADIUS) to local GPs.
- Display alternative ED avoidance services such as Health Direct brochures in the ED waiting room.
The objectives and solutions are being measured through a formalised data collection plan which includes performance, efficiency, safety and outcome data, as well as patient and staff feedback.
View this project's poster from the Centre for Healthcare Redesign graduation April 2023.
References
- NSW Health. (2023). South Eastern Sydney. Retrieved 25 January 2023, from South Eastern Sydney - Local health districts (nsw.gov.au)
- ORBIT KPI Dashboard – Filters for ETP- Emergency Treatment Performance- Admitted, The Sutherland Hospital
- NSW Health Infrastructure. (2022). Sutherland Hospital Operating Theatre Complex. Retrieved 25 January 2023, from https://www.hinfra.health.nsw.gov.au/projects/project-search/sutherland-hospital-operating-theatre-complex
