Home Ward team-based model of improving patient care journey

Dr Emma Donaldson

A new model of care is helping improve the quality of care provided to patients in medical wards across Caboolture Hospital.

The new model involves a combination of specialty and general medical teams working together at the patient’s bedside to deliver more coordinated and timely care.

The Medical and Older Persons services include various wards and speciality teams such as general medicine, cardiology, acute geriatrics, geriatric evaluation management, palliative care and respiratory.

Director of Medicine Dr Emma Donaldson said that traditional models of care involve teams following inpatients to different locations throughout the hospital during their admission.

“When a team’s patient was geographically displaced over multiple wards, we found that opportunities for collaboration between doctors, nursing staff, allied health professionals, patients, and their families had become more limited, making care coordination quite challenging,” Dr Donaldson said.

“With increasing numbers of patients accessing medical services at Caboolture, we needed a model that allowed us to work more effectively with other teams.

“Our new model enables teams to work together in the one location to provide high quality, integrated care to our patients.

“Many of our patients have multiple clinical conditions that require input from various specialist teams.

“It means we can address the patient’s care needs with input from the appropriate clinical teams, thereby optimising patient care and outcomes, even during peak periods.”