The Secretary’s Award recognises initiatives that support NSW Health’s vision for a sustainable health system to deliver outcomes that matter to patients, is personalised, invests in wellness and is digitally enabled.
The move to value is being accelerated through local initiatives and state-wide programs including Leading Better Value Care (LBVC), Integrated Care and Commissioning for Better Value.
Nominations for this category will need to demonstrate they are improving the different aspects of value:
The award acknowledges innovative projects and programs which promote:
Transcript: Sustaining and embedding the NSW Statewide Telestroke Service as part of a Supra Local Health District, hosted at Prince of Wales Hospital
The NSW Telestroke Service (NSW TSS) is a Statewide 24/7 hyper-acute stroke service providing time critical care to patients of regional and remote NSW. The aim of the service is to save lives and reduce disability from stroke.
NSW TSS is a Virtual Hub and Spoke model hosted and operationalised from Prince of Wales Hospital. The NSW TSS implementation was a collaboration between the NSW Ministry of Health, SESLHD, the Agency for Clinical Innovation, and eHealth.
NSW TSS connects 23 regional and remote hospitals, from nine local health districts with a stroke Specialist Neurologist via video conferencing technology enabled on the Workstations on Wheels.
Advanced brain imaging with CT perfusion has been optimised to facilitate on-site assessment, diagnosis, and reperfusion therapies closer to patients’ homes. This integrated model of care ensures efficiency of access to best practice stroke care to patients. The NSW TSS continues to enhance the rural health workforce through training, development, and support.
The NSW TSS offers a sustainable integrated model of care incorporating patient and clinician education, and provision of high-quality care with Statewide policy development.
Additionally, through comprehensive data collection, patient outcomes were evaluated, and ongoing quality improvement activities continue to be facilitated.
Transcript: Collaborative care for vulnerable patients
The Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD) Emergency Department to Community (EDC) initiative involved the implementation of an integrated model of care for patients at risk of emergency department (ED) presentation.
Implemented in 2021, the initiative identified patients with greater than 10 ED presentations in 12 months. Health and social services utilisation data across the acute, community, and primary care services were reviewed to identify the unmet needs of each patient.
Following eligibility, a Virtual Multi- Disciplinary Team (VMDT) conference was held. It involved health and social care providers from within and external to HNELHD, collaboratively developing community-based care solutions for patients to reduce the need for ED presentation.
ED utilisation for 116 randomly selected patients (district-wide) who received the EDC interventions was compared to a control group of 116 patients who met the EDC criteria and received usual care.
The outcomes included:
Transcript: Oral Health Goes Virtual
Historically, families from Southern Local Health Districts (MSNSW) requiring specialist paediatric dental care would have to travel up to 6 hours to Sydney. For patients and their families, this is an expensive and challenging experience that often results in limited access to specialist care. Additionally, COVID-19 restrictions meant this outreach model was temporarily not a viable option.
The Oral Health Goes Virtual project pivoted the existing model of care to a Virtual Care specialist and consultative service. The implementation of local chairside support, using intraoral cameras drastically improved access to the much-needed service. This was achieved through virtual consultations and the development of outreach paediatric dental clinics and general anaesthetic facilities. Alongside this development, SNSW oral health staff were also trained in an evidence-based Chronic Disease Management (CDM) protocol.
Patients can now present face–to–face in their local dental clinic where an Oral Health Professional can conduct a live consultation via MyVC with specialists joining remotely.
This development of a specialist rural model of care has allowed patients and families to access 217 virtual specialist consultations during the 2021-2022 FY, as well as providing essential treatments close to home. Additionally, more than 2600 hours of travel time has been saved for patients and their families, through the collaborative care of tele dentistry and outreach clinics.