Clinical Nurse Consultants Kris Dalton (left) and Jodie Batley, pictured with Nursing Director Surgery and Elective Care Andrew Jarvis, at Rockhampton Hospital’s Post-Operative Discharge Support Service.
Rockhampton Hospital has introduced a new service to support patients after their operations.
The Post Operative Discharge Support Service (PODSS) is a Clinical Nurse Consultant-led telehealth service that targets reducing avoidable Emergency Department visits within 30 days of hospital discharge, ensuring patients receive specialised post-op care in appropriate settings.
Two Clinical Nurse Consultants have started the Rockhampton PODSS and are ready to take a load off the hospital’s Emergency Department.
Jodie Batley and Kris Dalton are excited to start making a difference for Rockhampton Hospital’s post-operative patients.
They are just a phone call away for patients with any concerns post-operatively, including general wound care and infections, pain, or bleeding. They will do a phone assessment with the patient and advise whether they need to come back to hospital, and if they do, they can see them without needing to go to ED.
Both are experienced nurses who are looking forward to using their assessment skills and critical thinking to help patients.
They expect most people who will require this service are those post-caesarean patients with wound concerns, post-colonoscopy patients, and people with post-operative pain.
The service has been developed in response to National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) data, revealing that approximately 10 per cent of post-operative patients revisit Emergency Departments within 30 days post-discharge.
It was modelled on the successful STARS Hospital pilot in Brisbane in October 2023.
Funding has been supported for CQ Health through the statewide initiative roll-out and has been managed and coordinated by the Healthcare Improvement Unit.