None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
A new residential in-reach program has been introduced in the Grampians region. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of this new program in the region. The program will provide medical care to people who live in residential aged care homes when they experience a rapid deterioration in their health without the need to go to hospital if it is not necessary, and receive any care in their place of residence. This project will monitor hospital presentation for 14 months as the program is rolled-out in the region to evaluate its effects. It is hypothesised that this program will reduce emergency department and urgent care centre presentations from residential aged care facilities.
Interventions
Intervention will be a residential-in-reach program that provides telehealth triaging and care for residents in aged care facilities who experience an acute deterioration in their health status. Aged care staff will make a telehealth referral to central hub, where a nurse practitioner will triage the patient and make recommendations (for example, continue to monitor resident condition, conduct comprehensive assessment, liaise with general practitioner) or further referrals (for example, refer to
Intervention will be a residential-in-reach program that provides telehealth triaging and care for residents in aged care facilities who experience an acute deterioration in their health status. Aged care staff will make a telehealth referral to central hub, where a nurse practitioner will triage the patient and make recommendations (for example, continue to monitor resident condition, conduct comprehensive assessment, liaise with general practitioner) or further referrals (for example, refer to geriatrician or call an ambulance). A follow-up visit to the patient may be conducted the following day on recommendation by the triaging nurse practitioner. The program will be rolled-out in the region in a staged manner, with 2 residential aged care facilities beginning to access the program with each calendar month. This pragmatic implementation of the program aligns with a stepped-wedge design, therefore this will be a stepped-wedge evaluation. The effect of the project is on the order in which the aged cate facilities are randomised to start accessing the program. Residential aged care home staff will receive training prior to roll-out of the program. Training includes 2-3 hours of face-to-face education by Residential-in-Reach program nurse consultants and program lead, 1-2 hours of Telehealth training by Western Victoria Primary Health Network, and regular online check-ins with the residential aged care home manager to identify additional training needs or support The use of the resi-in-reach program will be assessed at the end of the evaluation based on the number of occasions of use from each enrolled aged care facility.
Sponsors
Monash University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Other
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
1. Health services that have emergency departments and/or emergency care centres that admit residents from residential aged care facilities 2. Residential Aged Care Homes that do not currently have access to RIR programs 3. Individual Participants 3.1. health service staff who have been involved with the set-up and delivery of the RIR program, 3.2 Aged care staff who have experience of or accessing the RIR service for residents at least once, 3.3 residents living at a residential aged care facility who has experienced receiving medical care from the RIR program and can provide informed consent, or a family member of the resident, 3.4 general practitioners whose case load includes residents from residential aged care facilities.
Exclusion criteria
Residential Aged Care facilities that already have access to a residential-in-reach program will be excluded,
Outcome results
None listed