Showcase Spotlight: Hospital in the Home - Strategies for Successful Implementation

This session will explore several Hospital in the Home (HiTH) models in Queensland, taking a proverbial 'look under the hood' to find out what works and why, and the many benefits of this hospital avoidance model.

About the panel

Melissa (Mel) McCusker is the Assistant Director of Nursing for the Acute Care@Home, COVID@Home and CHIP services in Metro South Health. Melissa was employed in the original pilot program for HITH in Metro South in 2007 and has been instrumental in the development of the service including the pilots of Criteria Led Discharge, telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring. The Remote Patient Monitoring trial for HITH patients in partnership with Telstra Health and the Department of Health which was the first of its kind in Australia for HITH patients.

Her clinical experience spans medical, critical care, post-acute and general practice nursing and she is a member of the HITH Society of Australasia and currently involved with statewide HITH working group.

About the facilitators

Laureen Hines is currently a Director in Clinical Excellence Queensland’s Healthcare Improvement Unit. Laureen has more than 20 years’ experience in nursing and leadership across the care continuum and departmental level. As the Queensland executive lead for Hospital in the Home (HITH), she has extensive HITH experience and has been instrumental in leading HITH reform within the Queensland context.

Dr Theodore Chamberlain is the Statewide Hospital in the Home (HITH) Clinical Lead for Clinical Excellence Queensland. Theodore Chamberlain is a founding fellow of the Australian College of Rural and Remote medicine (ACRRM) with a long history of rural practice and a career involving education, teaching, innovation and transformation. His interests are broad and in addition to a fellow of ACRRM, is a member of the International Society of Bayesian Analysis (ISBA), member of the Movement Disorder Society of Australia and New Zealand (MDSANZ), member of the Hospital in the Home Society Australasia and a FORTH innovation consultant.