Access to, and use of, allied health services at the Lyell McEwin Hospital

“Allied health service provision at the Lyell McEwin Hospital is already substantial, so with a projected increasing demand on acute services in both activity and complexity, there is need to use the resources of allied health wisely.”

- George

With any planning for effective and efficient services, there is careful consideration of who uses the services, for what reason, when they use the services and whether the service delivers a positive outcome wherever possible. Our researchers will also be looking at what a service costs and whether it appropriately meets a defined need.

Sophisticated decision analysis modelling can inform resource allocation by health service managers so, in this case, there can be confidence about decisions for delivery of allied health service across seven days a week.

Our researchers are conducting a retrospective observational study of a cohort of people presented and admitted to the Lyell McEwin Hospital who received allied health services from June 2019-2020.

Goal

This project will provide information to support allied health managers to make evidence informed decisions of resource allocation for seven-day service delivery in the acute setting.

Aims

To describe and measure the utilisation of allied health services at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
To measure the quality and outcomes of service provision across the seven-day allied health services at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
To determine the cost-benefit (dollars saved versus costs) of the seven-day allied health service at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
To compare the activity, quality, outcomes, costs associated with day of admission, day services received.
To model the cost-benefit of different allied health service models across seven days.

Researchers

From Flinders
Professor Stacey George 
Dr Jyoti Khadka

Grant Details

Northern Allied Health Research Funding $9020

Chief Lead Investigator: Professor Stacey George

Research Fellow: Jyoti Khadka

Commencement:
July 2021
Completion Due:
July 2022

Collaborators

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network: Sandra Parr, Executive Director of Allied Health. Nicolette Varvounis, Senior Speech Pathology Manager, Sergio Rivas-Dominguez, Senior Occupational Therapist, and Zoe Maidment, Physiotherapy Acute Care Services Manager.