While only a small proportion of Ballarat's COVID patients have needed admission to hospital, Ballarat Health Services has supported hundreds to get through the illness and recover at home.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Before COVID arrived, the BHS at Home service was being developed to treat cancer patients, those recovering from surgery or medical issues, and older people, at home and help avoid hospital admission or get them home faster.
But when the pandemic began a COVID service was quickly established and at its peak was supporting up to 70 patients a day.
Each person in the Ballarat region who tested positive to COVID was referred to the BHS at Home team and given the option to be cared for under the new scheme.
COVID navigator Sarah Beech said patients received one or two phone calls each day checking on their condition, which was monitored through regular temperature checks and blood oxygen level tests using a pulse oximeter delivered to patients in an information pack.
"After they have been assessed we drop off a pack that has handouts, diet advice, breathing exercises, and contact numbers so if they do need to contact anyone if they are feeling unwell they can, as well as numbers for mental health support and within that pack a thermometer and pulse oximeter," she said.
The BHS at Home COVID team then work with doctors and allied health care including occupational therapists, dieticians, pharmacists, social workers, psychologists, Aboriginal liaison and others to ensure patients receive the same care and advice they would if they were in hospital.
If medical staff think a patient's condition has worsened or needs further tests or assessment they are then bought to the emergency department where a decision is made to either admit them or send them home, or Ambulance Victoria paramedics can assess patients at home.
Mr Drake, who is the pediatric navigator for the BHS at Home COVID service, said it allowed families and patients to be cared for as they would be in hospital, but in a home setting.
"We have the resources available to contact allied health staff and refer to them so they are not missing out on any services they would otherwise have in hospital. It keeps them out of hospital and ... at the end of the day their symptoms are mild so they are better off being at home and cared for in the community and not isolated in hospital," he said.
"Their mental health would struggle more in hospital rather than being at home with family watching whatever they want on television, teens playing on their devices and face-timing friends."
As the COVID pandemic evolved, so too did the BHS at Home service which started with zero resources and grew rapidly as case numbers in Ballarat increased.
Ms Beech and Mr Drake said the lessons learned over the past 22 months would help BHS at Home grow in to the future and support patients with a range of other conditions.
Before COVID struck BHS had expanded the at Home model to include a cloud-based tool called Patient Watch, developed by Australian company Smart Health, to help patients recuperate at home.
IN OTHER NEWS
The system was adapted to cater for COVID patients, and will be further adapted to create Grampians Watch - a program to prevent avoidable admissions into ED from across the region.
"The care model manages patients in a familiar and comfortable environment - their home. It has been shown to reduce emergency department attendances and importantly, safely frees-up inpatient beds for those most in need. In addition, Patient Watch builds upon our existing work in extending our home based care model," said BHS executive director primary and community care Craig Wilding.
The system enables full integration with BHS health information systems and provides evidence-based assessment and risk-rating questionnaires that can be delivered to patients by clinical or non-clinical health service staff.
Patient responses to questionnaires are analysed in real-time by a clinical decision assistance engine, with issues identified by the assistance engine escalated to clinical staff.
Our team of local journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the Ballarat community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark thecourier.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news, sport and daily headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News