Transit Care Hub opened at Mackay Base Hospital as LNP slams ramping
A new hub is getting frustrated patients out of beds quicker to help ease the 100 per cent occupancy rate amid ambulance ramping concerns raised by LNP leader David Crisafulli.
Mackay
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A new Transit Care Hub has opened at Mackay Base Hospital to give patients a comfortable, nurse-attended waiting lounge while freeing up beds across the hospital.
The TCH is one of several initiatives designed to mitigate the 100 per cent occupancy rate at the hospital with COO Sharon Walsh saying its soft launch had already freed up 6 hours of bed availability per day.
“We’ve already in this month saved over 100 bed hours (and) for us, it’s a vital part of being able to create flow in the hospital,” Ms Walsh said.
She said the Mackay hospital’s new Transit Care Hub would help nurses cope with the daily “jigsaw puzzle” of getting patients to a hospital bed, while guiding outpatients along in their recovery.
She added many patients grew most frustrated when they were waiting in hospital beds, regardless of the department, for final results or pharmacy medications before their loved ones could come pick them up.
“I previously worked as a nurse and you want to be able to get your patients up, dressed and ready to take the next step,” Ms Walsh said.
The official opening of the hub on Wednesday coincides with Queensland opposition leader David Crisafulli alleging the state’s ambulance waiting times were the worst in Australia.
Mr Crisafulli slammed Mackay specifically, alleging it had lost 2565 hours to ramping.
“Paramedics want to be on the road assisting Queenslanders in their hour of need, not double parked at a hospital,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“This is a shocking new low in the Queensland Health Crisis [sic]”.
Health opposition spokeswoman Ros Bates added “bed block is rife … and patients are waiting more than 24 hours in the emergency department for treatment”.
A Queensland Health spokesman said ramping or patient off-stretcher time averaged 30 minutes across Queensland, compared to Victoria – being Australia’s worst – averaging 40 minutes.
To further address ramping at MBH, staff have created an ambulance transfer nurse position as well as introduced a three-bed bay area in its ED so paramedics can release patients to the hospital.
The QH spokesman disputed Ms Bate’s allegations patients were waiting 24 hours in EDs, saying the sickest and most serious patients were triaged and seen first.
Mackay Hospital and Health Service chief operating officer Sharon Walsh said every patient who arrived by ambulance at the hospital with a life-threatening illness or injury was seen on time.
“Where there are longer waits to unload patients off ambulance stretchers, most are less seriously ill and therefore triaged as Category 3, 4 or 5 patients,” Ms Walsh said.
She said MBH had one of Queensland’s “best performing EDs” with recent data showing 9 in 10 people were seen on time.
She added there had been a 5.6 per cent increase in patients arriving at MBH by ambulance – resulting in an extra 1244 arrivals over the last financial year.
“Of the 23,362 patients transported by ambulance to Mackay HHS hospitals (excluding Collinsville Multi Purpose Health Service) 17,340 were ‘off stretcher’ in less than 30 minutes,” Ms Walsh said.
“The overall median waiting time for treatment is 11 minutes.
“That is a great result for our community by any measure.”
MBH patient flow assistant director Emma Hess said the Transit Care Hub had been a “really fabulous service” over its soft launch and she looked forward to its continued success.
“It is a really important initiative,” Ms Hess said.
“From a patient flow perspective, we’ve saved 100 hours of inpatient bed availability (so) we’ve got the patients much faster out of the emergency department.
“As we continue to grow the service and as the hospital (staff) learns more about it, we’ll continue to have more patients each day.
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