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Comprehensive Care Making Health Care Delivery Safer

                                                  

The WA Nurses Memorial Charitable Trust has awarded $10,000 to the Comprehensive Care (CC) Project led by Dr Heather Kidd, Nursing Director Safety, Organisational Learning and Development at RPBG.

Comprehensive Care (CC) is a service innovation for the provision of continuous and collaborative care whereby patients, families and the health care team work in partnership to achieve the best possible health outcomes for the patient.

International studies of CC in the acute care setting found that CC:

  • improved patient satisfaction
  • improved shared decision making and goal setting
  • reduced length of stay
  • reduced hospital readmissions
  • reduced inpatient mortality
  • reduced hospital acquired complications (HACS).

Hospital Acquired Complications are identified as clinical complications that are significantly preventable and are a national priority area. Hospital Acquired Complications occur in 1 in 9 patients who attend Australian hospitals with the annual cost of  HAC in Australia is estimated at $4 Billion for public hospitals.

 

The CC Model Project aims to reduce not only HACs but mortality and readmissions by further integrating health care delivery across all professions. Specifically, this project aims to improve team work and communication, redesign workflow to reduce duplication and enhance patient involvement. The research project aims to commence in the new year and will continue till mid 2021.