Monash Health’s COVID Positive Care Pathways program is co-led by A/Prof Ben Rogers, Infectious Disease specialist and the Head of Unit of the Hospital in the Home Program and Community Director Julie White.
The Pathways team in Monash Health Community supports adult and paediatric patients in the community, with COVID-19, who are at risk of complications or hospitalisation from their illness. These patients are monitored closely as they may require clinical escalation and transitioning to higher levels of care such as ED and inpatient.
Julie said “It has been a team effort with many departments at Monash Health, coming together in the Pathways program to deliver vital care to our community, with the recent surge in COVID-19 meaning we need to scale up quickly”.
Julia Oxley, General Manager Monash Health Community, said, “the team is now made up of Medical, Nursing, Allied Health and Administrative staff from Community plus Surgical Liaison Nurses and Clinical Researchers. The program has been supported by the Transformation Office and Digital Health as we designed the program from scratch and have utilised M365 and Sharepoint, and shortly Teams to optimise the service and communications.”
Medium-risk patients in the program are cared for directly by Monash Health staff, whereas low-risk patients are cared for by GPs and monitored remotely. Medium-risk patients can enter symptoms through an electronic portal, allowing our clinical teams to monitor their condition remotely. The software helps prioritise patients who are at risk of deteriorating.
“There are a number of patients that are best staying in the community and can be well supported at home. It’s good if we can keep those patients from presenting to the Emergency Department or coming into hospital, unless they need this care” says A/Prof Rogers.
Monash Health COVID Care Pathways Webinar
Monash Health GP Liaison recently ran a webinar to provide GPs with information about COVID Care Pathways and the role they can play in managing and supporting their patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The webinar included several presentations including:
- Overview of home-based COVID Care Pathways by A/Professor Ben Rogers, Infectious Disease Physician
- GP monitoring of COVID patients by Dr Benjamin Tarsh, COVID Pathways GP, Central Bayside Community Health Services
- Eligibility for Sotrovimab Infusion by Dr Lydia Upjohn Infectious Diseases Physician, Monash Health HITH
- COVID in Pregnancy by Dr Sushena Krishnaswamy, Infectious Diseases Physician, Monash Health and Royal Women’s Hospitals
- Paediatric COVID Pathways Dr Matthew O’Brien, Paediatric Infectious Diseases Physician, Monash Children’s at Home
The Webinar concluded with a Q&A session addressing questions from the over 100 GPs in attendance.
The team would like to thank all the speakers including Dr Alan Andrews (General Practitioner, GP Liaison) for chairing and to Dr Bec Fradkin (Monash Women’s GP Liaison) and Margaret Ricardo (GP Liaison Coordinator) for bringing the event together.
The Webinar presentations can be viewed on the Monash Health website.
Approved by Dux Balendran.