A/Prof. Scott Kitchener1,2
1Queensland Health Wide Bay Hospital And Health Service, Australia, 2University of Queensland, Rural Clinical School, Hervey Bay, Australia
Aims: Virtual wards are a relatively new model of care in metropolitan, specialist hospital services.
The primary aim of this presentation is a critical analysis of the clinical governance of a virtual ward for COVID-19. The secondary aim is to stimulate discussion of clinical governance of virtual wards being virtual or actual.
Methods: This has been investigated by a critical analysis of this model of care against the legislative framework, clinical governance standards and policies of the relevant jurisdiction and health service, expanded with an audit of 200 randomly selected patients of the virtual ward in January – March 2022 and comparative epidemiology of COVID-19 hospitalisations.
Results: There is limited legislative context for virtual wards in the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 (Qld) and tenuous connection to the Public Health Act 2005 (Qld) for transfer of confidential notifiable disease information from which the majority of “referrals” arose. Policies were not established with respect to the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth). Clinical governance standards regarding the scope of practice for hospital-based specialists are vague regarding community care and telehealth and not applied despite “admissions” for up to 13 days. Medication management standards for hospital admission were not applied. Communication with GP did not acknowledge transfer of care policies nor Medicare access conflict.
Key Conclusions: Clarification of actual clinical governance of patients in virtual care is required for safety and equity.
Biography:
A/Prof. Scott Kitchener is a Pubic Health Physician and Medical Administrator. He works as the Executive Director of Medical Services, Public Health and Research at Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service. He was the Public Health Incident Controller for for Queensland in 2020 and the Health Incident Controller for Wide Bay until December 2021.