SPECIAL INTEREST REPORT POSTER DISPLAY

A MODEL OF MULTI-DISCIPLINARY REHABILITATION ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING WITHIN AN ACUTE HOSPITAL SETTING. Richardson D¹, Wright G¹, Dickinson E¹, Al-Damen M¹, Holden J¹, Morrell T²; ¹Hammersmith Hospital NHS Trust. ²Hammersmith and Fulham PCT

PURPOSE: The management of 58 rehabilitation beds based in 3 different geographical areas. 2 based within the acute hospital and 1 in the community was required to ensure effective use of the rehabilitation resources available to patients within a 600 bedded acute hospital. RELEVANCE: Rehabilitation has the potential to reduce the length of stay on acute wards and ensure safe and effective discharge of patients into the community settings. A clear understanding of the role of acute base rehabilitation is essential. Therapists, nurses and doctors need to work together in a cohesive integrated manner across specialities and settings to deliver timely and appropriate care. DESCRIPTION: A virtual roving multi-disciplinary rehabilitation team was set up to assess, advise and stream patients from all hospital areas towards the most appropriate rehabilitation options. The system is an online web based system available to all ward based clinical staff of every discipline. Following ward based discussions the staff can fill out a comprehensive online referral form to the team. The referral is then sent to a web based data base that can be accessed by the virtual rehabilitation team. Each member of the team is alerted to every new referral via their own personal email address. The team member that picks up the referral first will go and assess the patient and discuss with the team. The team assessors are highly qualified clinical staff with expertese in rehabilitation from various clinical backgrounds and specialities. EVALUATION: Since the inception of the Roving Multi-disciplinary Rehabilitation team patients have been able to access the rehabilitation skills and specialism in a timely and appropriate manner, minimising the risk of increased dependancy through prolonged stays on acute wards. The bed occupancy of the new community based rehabilitation unit has remained consistently high as have the 2 ward based rehabilitation areas. Throughput has increased and length of stay reduced. The awareness of the value of rehabilitation to assist in patient management has increased and therapies have secured their role in the future of the acute, speciality focused health setting. CONCLUSIONS: Innovative use of information technology and focused implimentation of a model has resulted in a high profile Rehabilitation service that is used by all specialities throughout the hospital. Referrals are responded to quickly and patients are transferred to the most appropriate setting for their management. IMPLICATIONS: Working together with other disciplines allows for comprehensive plans to be drawn up for every patient with opportunities to learn from other disciplines and optimising the patients journey. KEYWORDS: Innovative, Information technology, Implementation. FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: No funding.