Virtual Health Monitoring at Mackay Base Hospital

Mackay Hospital and Health Service (MHHS) in Queensland uses Virtual Health Monitoring to help patients return home faster.

Mackay Base Hospital has implemented Telstra Health’s Virtual Health Monitoring Solution as part of the Care in the Right Setting (Hospital in the Home (HiTH) program. The program aims to deliver the right care, at the right place, at the right time and reduce hospital length of stay times and improve clinical resource management.

Virtual Health Monitoring at Mackay Base Hospital, Queensland

Designed to deliver inpatient standard of care to patients at home, the program consists of home visits from the nurse and allied health team, combined with telehealth (video conference) consultations with a Senior Medical Officer and the use of virtual health monitoring devices and patient app to record vital signs and data.

Dr John Hadok, Senior Medical Officer for Hospital in the Home Program:

“Virtual health monitoring helps enable patients to leave hospital earlier than they otherwise might, being confident that they will be looked after at a sufficient standard while they are at home.”

Mackay Base Hospital can treat both adult and paediatric cohorts, referred by the medical, surgical and orthopaedic specialists’ teams. The information they can receive back from a patient on a daily basis includes observations such as blood glucose, blood pressure, temperature, weight and oxygen levels as well as health check questionnaire responses.

Stuart Garantziotis, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Hospital in the Home (HiTH) Program:

“Virtual Health Monitoring has enabled us to have an extra layer of clinical comfort and oversight for our patients. It’s enabled greater clinician confidence in terms of referring into our service for more acute patients that otherwise traditionally wouldn’t be referred to a HiTH service.”

Mackay Base Hospital plans to further extend its Hospital in the Home program to include more rural patients enabling them to be treated via virtual care in their own communities.

The is a case study only. Results will vary depending on circumstantial organisational factors, including efficient organisation implementation, and the number of modules available and implemented by the client.