New expansion into home care

13 Nov 2019

13 November 2019

Home care services have previously been provided under the banner of “Health Choices” and offers experienced nursing care for patients in their home, primarily after a hospital stay.

Services include nursing care after surgery or to help manage ongoing medical conditions so that patients can return home sooner and continue their recovery.

St John of Healthcare at Home also offers a private home visiting postnatal care service, including breastfeeding support, in WA.

St John of God Health Care Group Chief Executive Officer Dr Shane Kelly said the service would refocus and expand its home nursing care to provide expert clinical support for patients who were unwell or had recently had a hospital stay.

“Through St John of God Healthcare at Home patients get access to high quality, safe care in their home and stay close to their family and carers, as they continue their recovery,” he said.

Dr Kelly said the home care was a key service for the organisation going forward as it responded to changing community needs. 

“For more than 120 years, we have been caring for the community primarily through hospital-based services. This traditional model of care has served our communities well, but the changing market and consumer expectations offers an opportunity to look at the different services we can provide to further demonstrate the benefits of private healthcare,” he said.

“That means we need to strengthen our care outside the hospital walls. It’s what our communities want.

“Through St John of God Healthcare at Home we want to provide the specialised care that people currently can’t, or find it difficult to, access in the home.

“Our focus is on acute care and subacute care, which are those things that we are already known for and do well, such as wound management, IV antibiotics, medication management, postnatal care, and in the future chemotherapy and other infusions, palliative care, and mental health care.”

Dr Kelly said expanding home care services would offer more choice to the community while also better integrating hospital and at home care.

“Providing patients with ongoing, expert support at home means they are more likely to have better health outcomes, and less likely to need to go back to hospital,” he said.

“This helps to reduce the cost of providing healthcare whilst ensuring GPs and specialists know their patients are getting the care they need.”

St John of God Healthcare at Home services are provided in WA in Perth and in Victoria in Ballarat, Bendigo, Berwick (south-east Melbourne) and Geelong.

Home nursing key stats

Last financial year, St John of God Health Care’s home nursing service provided more than 110,000 home care visits. The majority of these visits were to support people needed acute care such as after hospital surgery or medical care, medication management for chronic disease, and postnatal care.