Direct Referral Pathway for GPs to Hospital in the Home (HITH)

Hospital In The Home (HITH) is a service that provides acute hospital level care in a person’s residence, including a nursing home. The Department of Health, Clinical Excellence Queensland, is developing a GP direct referral pathway for statewide public HITH services, enabling patient care in the right place in a timely manner. Consultation with GPs, GPLOs, PHNs and statewide HITH services will occur to inform the development of this direct referral pathway.

Question Title

* 1. Are you aware of your local HITH service?

Yes

Question Title

* 2. Would a direct referral from your practice to a HITH service benefit your patients?

Yes

No (please elaborate)

Question Title

* 3. What referral tool would be the most efficient for you? (multiple selection available)

Standard GP referral letter

Template for your practice software

Electronic transfer of HITH referral form

One of the above and a telephone call

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 4. How quickly would you like a response from HITH about your referral?

Immediately

Same day

Within one (1) day

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 5. How would you prefer this response is communicated to you?

Telephone

Either telephone or email

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 6. For referral purposes, what operating hours would provide a responsive service for you?

Working hours, 5 days per week

Working hours, 7 days per week

24 hours, 7 days per week

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 7. How frequently would you like the HITH service to communicate with you about your patient?

At admission and discharge

At admission, discharge and significant incidences

Daily

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 8. In addition to receiving a discharge summary at the end of a patient's HITH journey, is there another form of communication you prefer? (multiple selection available)

Telephone

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 9. What are the main obstacles for you to refer patients directly to HITH? (multiple selection available)

Not aware of the service

Too time consuming to refer

Difficulty of access (and instead send patients to ED)

Lack of communication from the HITH service

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 10. What education will support you to refer patients directly to HITH? (multiple selection available)

Information about the service

Education on the referral process

Education on the normal patient cohorts/ patient suitability

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 11. What should the key elements of a GP direct referral pathway to HITH include?

Question Title

* 12. In addition to HITH, the Department of Health has invested in Multidisciplinary Avoidance and Post-acute Services (MAPS).

MAPS has been established to pilot the expansion of community based post-acute service including direct referral from both GPs and the Queensland Ambulance Service as a hospital avoidance pathway.

The teams delivering this rapid in home clinical response are multi-disciplinary, with nursing and allied health professionals, working seven days a week and having the capacity to visit the referred person at home within 24 hours from referral if required.

Maps offers support for up to two weeks for individuals on the program after which there will be a need to establish transfer of care processes to community care providers who can continue the support of the clients for those that need that ongoing support. MAPS provides a discharge summary to referrs at the end of the service journey.

At the present time, this service is available in South East Queensland with the view to expand in other areas of the state in the future.

If a MAPS service was available for you to directly refer a patient to the service, would the answers you provided above be the same for MAPS?

Yes

No (please elaborate)