Reimaging traditional models of care to deliver collaborative, person-centred and high value nutrition care
Jennifer Ellick1,2, Simone McCoy1, Hannah Olufson1,2, Amanda Adams1, Jessica Kinneally1, Adrienne Young1,2, Kellie Stockton1,2 1Metro North Health, Herston, QLD, Australia2University of Queensland, QLD, Australia
Abstract
The opening of a new digital hospital provided an opportunity to translate research into practice and rethink traditional hospital Dietetics and Food Service models of care.
Our aim was to leverage existing workforce capability and digital systems to implement a systematised, interdisciplinary model of service to deliver collaborative, person-centred and high value nutrition care at the Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS).
A multidisciplinary group of stakeholders reviewed literature and consumer feedback. A delegated and digitally enhanced service model was implemented, supporting workforce to work to full scope of practice. Implementation was enabled through the creation of systematised pathways and delegation protocols with escalation points. Simulations and clinical task instructions were used to train and measure competency. Monitoring of safety, quality and outcomes is enabled via clinical supervision, clinical outcome/practice audits, review of activity data from ieMR and scheduling systems, and staff satisfaction surveys.
Two years after opening 71% outpatient activity is delivered via telehealth contributing to statewide load-sharing and 51% of all inpatient activity is delegated to Dietetic Assistants. Fifteen percent of Dietitian time has been reallocated for quarantined research and quality improvement with scientific publication output increasing by 200%. Benefits to patients include decreased wait times for outpatient services, low prevalence of hospital malnutrition (23%) and high rates of food service satisfaction (4.39/5).
The implementation and evaluation of our digitally enhanced, innovative model of service at Metro North’s first digital hospital will pave the way for other facilities and services during their digital transformation journey.
Biography
Jen is the Director Dietetics and Food Services at a new digital specialist public hospital, STARS. As a generalist dietitian with a passion for finding ways to ‘do more with less’, she’s had an eclectic career spent mostly in clinical or food service management roles and has also enjoyed stints in private practice, health service strategy and planning, project management and even dabbled in tech startup and app development.