IF YOU have contracted coronavirus in the region in the past two years, chances are you would be familiar with Bendigo Health's Hospital in the Home (HITH) program.
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The program has been operating since before the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on providing individualised and holistic care in a patient's home that would otherwise be provided in an acute hospital setting.
The service is used to treat cancer patients, those recovering from surgery or medical issues and, more recently, it has been used to monitor COVID-19 positive patients.
Since September 1 this year, 863 people have been cared for through the service - 602 of those were adults and the remainder were children under 12.
How does it work?
Each person in the Greater Bendigo region who tests positive for COVID-19 is referred to the HITH.
HITH COVID Virtual Home Monitoring manager Susan Andrews said her team received a notification from Bendigo Health's public health unit every time a patient was referred to them.
From there, a medical officer undertakes a medical assessment on the patient who is screened to determine their clinical risk.
Following this, Ms Andrews then steps in and allocates the patient into teams that are then delegated to clinicians.
Patients are then followed up by the clinicians daily.
If medical staff think a patient's condition has worsened or needs further tests or assessment they are then bought to the emergency department where a decision is made to either admit them or send them home, or Ambulance Victoria paramedics can assess patients at home.
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They also work closely with the Bendigo Health's Paediatric team who monitor all the children in the program aged 12 and under.
Head of Paediatric Joel Ziffer said the program allowed families and patients to be cared for together.
Our staff have performed really well and I am proud for what we have done and I am very happy.
- HITH COVID Virtual Home Monitoring manager Susan Andrews
"It's really important to run this program so that every child or adolescent in Victoria needs to be clinically supported at home and thankfully this virus is pretty mild in children," he said
"Families and children need support and they also need to make sure their is the appropriate back-up support, one thing we learned from NSW was that no one really planned for when parents got sick, who would care for the COVID positive child.
"Through that, we were able to change our own practices, we do ask those questions now and if the family can't care of the children if they end up having to go into the hospital, we now have processes to manage that.
"It has been working really well."
Dr Ziffer said monitoring younger people from home had been challenging at times but said overall it ran smoothly.
"It has been manageable. We have coped with that as the COVID cases have grown, we have grown with that," he said.
Ms Andrews said the 18 months have been a challenge but said staff have adapted and performed remarkably.
"It has been a challenge and I won't deny that," she said.
"There have been some pretty long days put in and I can remember sitting there one day and we got 40 notifications of patients and I was just thinking oh god.
"Our staff have performed really well and I am proud for what we have done and I am very happy.
"It's been a learning curve but we have adapted."
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