About the program
General medicine is the largest admitting specialty within our hospitals which presents the greatest opportunity to improve access to care across the system.
We'll use the SAFEST Patient Journey Home Framework to assess patient flow in general medicine, improve access to care and achieve better patient outcomes.
SAFEST Patient Journey Home Framework
The framework includes principles to improve access to care, reduce waiting times, shorten hospital stays and improve patient flow. It helps hospitals and health services link their flow improvement efforts to evidence-based models of care across Queensland.
Read the SAFEST Patient Journey Home Framework [PDF 6894.63 KB].
Learn more about the framework and other patient flow resources for health professionals on the Queensland Health website.
Goals
Our aim is to help hospitals:
- support timely discharge every day
- improve coordination and reduce delays
- include all members of the health care team working to their full scope
- hold daily ward rounds led by senior health professionals
- make criteria led discharge standard practice
- collect data by recording discharge delays
- look at barriers and start and continue targeted quality improvement activities.
Meeting these goals
We'll review general medicine services at 25 hospitals using the SAFEST framework to find opportunities for improvement.
We'll create a self-assessment tool and system checks to see how these services align with best practice care models. We'll also provide improvement guides for each hospital.
We'll run workshops at 6 hospitals to create plans to help them introduce, track and assess improvements. We'll also provide funding for extra staff to help the hospitals put the improvements in place.
Contact
For more information email HIU@health.qld.gov.au.