21 August 2023
The Better at Home initiative is now supporting the expansion of the Hospital in the Home (HITH) program at the Grampians Health Horsham campus.
The HITH program is an acute bed substitution program that continues to provide acute care for patients in the comfort of their own home.
The Clinical Innovation and Development team from the Ballarat campus have been working with the Horsham HITH team over the past few months to grow and develop the service.
Project leader Allison Monk has been working onsite in Horsham with the HITH team to review and develop the service and the clinical nurse educator for Grampians Health at Home, Cath Brooke, has been developing education support for the team while also making regular trips to Horsham.
HITH unit manager in Horsham Barry Arnott, HITH team leader Janet Johnson and the team have been working in collaboration with Allison and are very positive towards the expansion and changes to the model of care.
“The changes have helped the service to be more efficient for the HITH team which is benefiting the experience for the patients,” Mr Arnott said.
“We are piloting new clinical roles to identify and increase the number of patients being transferred into HITH and additional administration support has also been introduced to support the clinical team.
“Another initiative has been supporting the team to move away from paper-based documents to electronic.
“The team is going to be carrying iPads so they can link directly back into the Grampians Health system from the client’s home, to document and access information.”
Grampians Health Chief Operating Officer Community and Aged Care Craig Wilding said the review and development of the HITH program at the Horsham campus was a part of redesign work that had begun in the Wimmera to deliver more care either at home or closer to home.
“We are also working through other projects, including the recent introduction of a health coach to Horsham as part of the Grampians Watch Program to support patients and to help ease hospital emergency presentations,” Mr Wilding said
Pictured: HITH Project Leader Allison Monk