Evaluation of a 7-Day Acute General Medical Allied Health Assistant Model of Care in a Regional Australian Hospital.
Kellie Preston1, Kirstie Faulkner1, Carly Maurer1, Lee-Anne Polkinghorne1, Sharon Woods 2, Brendan Humphries1 1Central Queensland HHS, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia2Gold Coast HHS, Gold Coast , QLD, Australia
Abstract
Background: Weekend subacute allied health (AH) services have demonstrated positive impacts on patient outcomes, length of stay and service costs. There is less evidence for acute 7-day AH services and little is known about utilising Allied Health Assistants (AHA) in these models. Therefore, the primary purpose of this research was to explore demand, cost and workforce perceptions of an AHA 7-day acute model of care, as well as the enablers and barriers to implementation.
Method: 754 patient journeys were analysed. A mixed methods design was applied, using two 7-month data sets in two study periods to compare a five-day service (1 August 2021–28 February 2022) versus seven-day service (1 August 2022–28 February 2023). Data was obtained from hospital databases, online surveys and focus groups.
Results: Preliminary results highlight a 39% increase in delegations per day and 15.9% increase in occasions of service (OOS) per day in the 7-day service compared to the 5-day service. The key users of the AHA 7-day service were Physiotherapy (55.2%), Occupational Therapy (37.6%), Dietetics (4.6%), Speech Pathology (2%) and Social Work (0.6%). The 7-day service was 21% more efficient to meet demand, with an average of 20.6 minutes per OOS. Labour cost to deliver the AHA 7-day model of care increased by ~$18,300.
Discussion: Initial analysis revealed that acute 7-day AHA services may improve patient access to AH care and support organisational outcomes with minimal increase to labour costs. Further exploration of staff perceptions, enablers and barriers to implementation will be provided.
Biography
Kellie is a new researcher and the Allied Health Principal Project Officer for Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service. Kellie is also a practicing Speech Pathologist, with experience in project and change management, as well as clinical leadership. Kellie is motivated to translate research into clinical practice to deliver high quality evidence-based speech pathology and allied health services to Central Queenslanders.