When Central Queensland Hospital and Health Services (CQHHS) Allied Health Service asked ourselves what critical actions needed to be taken to achieve Great Care for Central Queenslanders, we realised that small incremental changes in only one part of a patient's journey would not be enough. We needed to transform and optimise broadly, within our immediate sphere of control. In CQHHS, we did just that through a commitment to the delivery of the CQHHS Allied Health Integrated Model of Care Framework.
From 2022-23, we implemented seven-day and rapid response allied health service models focused on hospital avoidance and early supported community transition. We aimed to realise a value-based shift away from traditional acute-focused services toward out of hospital care. This was achieved through mobilisation and optimisation of existing resources, based on the hypothesis that a whole of system approach would create efficiencies, resulting in enhanced patient access, experience and outcomes, at no additional cost to the health service.
We achieved improved capacity to meet allied health service demands within existing resource allocation i.e. we delivered a lot more activity and saw more patients in the right place at the right time, with no more resources. We realised our goal for a valued-based activity shift from inpatient to out of hospital care. We saw an increase in satisfaction with the quality of allied health services we delivered, as well as enhanced workforce confidence and capability in telehealth care, AHA delegation and speech pathology acute care.
