Specific and Timely Appointments for Triage (STAT): Our Implementation Experience in Community Health Paediatric Allied Health Services in Northern NSW
Karen Hanna1, Carly Coetzee1, Leonie Hamilton1, Monique Du Sautoy1, Berniece Manuel1, Holly Thomson1, Rhonda Whelan1 1Northern NSW Local Health District, Tweed-Byron Network, Tweed Heads, NSW, Australia
Abstract
There are identified benefits of early access to therapy services for children with developmental delays to minimise impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. However, in public health clinics, long waiting lists frequently exist for allied health services. Delayed access to services leads to adverse outcomes for children and families, delays for families in accessing NDIS funding and family stress. For clinicians, long waiting lists for therapy are demoralising and socially and economically disadvantaged families are impacted as they lack the financial resources to seek care elsewhere.
In the Tweed-Byron Child & Family Allied Health teams within the Northern NSW Local Health District, clinicians in Tweed-Murwillumbah Community Health Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy and Byron Hospital Speech Pathology commenced implementing the STAT model (Specific and Timely Appointments for Triage) during 2021-22 to reduce waiting times for children for developmental assessment and therapy. Following online training, clinicians implemented active strategies to reduce their existing waiting lists, calculated demand for their services and allocated a set number of weekly new patient appointment slots in their schedules to assess new patients. Ongoing implementation in these and other services (eg additional disciplines/geographical areas) within our team and measurement of family satisfaction with services delivered via STAT (via Patient Reported Experience Measures and other tools such as patient stories) is planned.
This paper presents our experience using the STAT model, its impact on waiting times for allied health services and how it has improved processes for intake and management of clients referred to our service.
Biography
Karen Hanna is the Acting Child & Family Allied Health team leader and Acting Occupational Therapy Manager in the Tweed-Byron Network, Northern NSW Local Health District. She leads an experienced team of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists, Dietitians and Child & Family Counsellors providing services to paediatric inpatients and outpatients at Tweed and Byron Hospitals. She is an experienced paediatric occupational therapist in public health settings in regional areas, with a special interest in family-centred practice and developing service initiatives to improve patients’ journeys and evaluate families’ experiences of receiving care.