Rethinking Inpatient Social Work Service Delivery for Peri-Urban Hospital Sites
Suzanne Ebert1, Deborah Parish1, Emily Burrows1, Sarah Love1, Karin Bell1, Megan Gulbin1 1Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network, Gawler/Adelaide Hills/Southern Fleurieu, South Australia, Australia
Abstract
Historically in the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network (BHF LHN), models of care for service delivery by allied health to acute hospitals have varied at each site. Social Work interventions have been delivered via either a siloed clinician on a pre determined roster or via a referral response by Rural Generalist clinicians without transparent activity/funding alignment.
An analysis of these service models identified a number of potential risks including reduced clinical oversight, danger of out of scope engagement, clinician burn out, poor capacity to flex up quickly towards or away from the acute sector, impact of quarantined positions on staff deskilling, and regional inequities without centralised service allocation against clinical priorities.
The BHF Social Work leadership group took the opportunity of the development of ‘Acute Allied Health Service Principles’ for BHF LHN’s three major peri-urban hospitals in 2022, to develop a unique hybrid model. This model is being trialled regionally at these three sites and balances; allocation of workforce resources to individual hospitals as per funded FTE, with the need to respond to clinical risk across BHF LHN, as per the Rural LHN Social Work Clinical Prioritisation Tool.
This presentation will share;
Vision and strategic objectives.
Client related, health service related and discipline specific outcomes.
Data comparisons pre and post implementation re: referral rates, service access KPIs and staff satisfaction.
Processes for staff skill development/training including clinical priority refreshers and reviewed orientation practices.
Links with other regional processes including Triage, Escalation and Contingency planning.
Biography
Biographies to come