State Health Coordination Centre

‘Clinicians, hospitals and SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) are doing the best they can but the current systems do not offer them the visibility they need across the system, or the ability to record clinical information robustly’ Dr Brooks says.

‘We do know that on average there are 60 interfacility transfers via ambulance every day across the system. About 70% of these do not go directly to a hospital bed but via the emergency department, which can contribute to ramping and unnecessary delays to reaching a bed’. SIFT supports the identification of patients who do not require admission via the Emergency Department.

‘Optimising flow through the whole system will reduce the strain on our EDs, ensuring patients are admitted to beds on time and can return closer to home sooner.’

Dr Brooks says SIFT will use three tools to give clinicians and other staff who manage patient flow access to the information they need, when they need it:

• an e-form, completed by the clinician sending the patient to another facility when the patient has been accepted by that facility for admission

• SIFT dashboard – information collected from the e-forms into the real-time SIFT dashboard will provide visibility of interfacility transfers to hospitals, SAAS and other health facilities. A next stage will include transport bookings with the ambulance transfer details

• Electronic Medical Record (EMR) pre-visit – in facilities where the EMR is used, information in the SIFT dashboard will be used to open an EMR episode and support clinical documentation at the accepting facility. Where clinically appropriate, this will allow inpatient teams to document care plans, order medication or investigations, arrange beds and place patients on theatre lists – all before they have arrived.

The SIFT tools have been designed to facilitate the transfer of all patients who have been accepted for inpatient admission by an inpatient service. SIFT excludes patients being transferred for a Mental Health reason (other systems exist) and patients not currently accepted by an inpatient service, or not known to require inpatient admission.

After a successful pilot in the South Coast District, Noarlunga, Modbury and Mount Barker District Soldiers’ Memorial hospitals, and consultation with more than 200 clinicians across South Australia, SIFT will be introduced across the state in coming months.

The SHCC has also assisted regional and remote clinicians working at non-EMR SA Health sites to access, where appropriate, Read-Only access to the EMR for their patients. The EMR pre-visit SIFT tool cannot be used by facilities not yet using the EMR; clinicians with read-only access will be able to read relevant documentation for their patients accepted by EMR site clinicians.

Dr Brooks says the clinical input has contributed to processes ‘that will enable real-time information sharing, improved clinical documentation, offering patients more timely care, and reduce administrative burden on clinicians’.

‘The State Health Coordination Centre will continue to work with clinicians statewide to provide better tools, systems, and processes for patient care,’ she says.