- Novartis is to host a pre-Congress symposium, “Potentially Preventable Hospitalisations” on Tuesday October 9, in the lead up to the 42nd World Hospital Congress in Brisbane that week
- Potentially preventable hospitalisations is an important whole-of-health issue requiring stakeholders across the healthcare system to work together
- New models of care may play a role in preventing unnecessary hospitalisations, with an opportunity to examine the emerging roles of primary, community and allied health
Sydney, October 8, 2018 – The potential impact of models of care, patient experience, service quality and measurable health outcomes as well as innovation and technology will be examined at a symposium on Potentially Preventable Hospitalisations being hosted by Novartis, coinciding with the 42nd World Hospital Congress in Brisbane in October.
Dr Simon Fisher, Chief Scientific Officer, Clinical Development and Scientific Affairs at Novartis Australia said quality use of medicines, appropriate patient support and service optimisation can create efficiencies in the healthcare system, and in particular help to reduce preventable hospitalisations.
“Novartis is delighted to be a Platinum sponsor of the World Hospital Congress and also bring together a diverse group of thought leaders to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities to reduce preventable hospitalisations,” said Dr Fisher.
“Novartis looks at the healthcare system holistically. Whilst our medicines treat complex diseases and improve patient lives, we want to contribute to the Australian community more broadly as demonstrated by our ongoing endeavours in clinical research and our contribution of our local and international expertise to support partnerships aimed at delivering tangible healthcare solutions.”
Associate Professor Charlotte Hespe, Vice President, Faculty Chair NSW /ACT, Council Member at The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) will be speaking on the role of models of care in the opening session of the Potentially Preventable Hospitalisations symposium.
Professor Hespe, who is also Head General Practice and Primary Care Research Primary, University of Notre Dame, said primary care is the ideal place to implement models of care that prevent unnecessary hospitalisation by focusing on prevention and chronic disease management as well as reactive care.
Innovations in models of care for primary health build on the concept of Triple Aim of Healthcare model by adding recognition of the clinician.
“I’m a passionate aficionado of the Quadruple Aim for healthcare – improving the patient experience, improving population health, decreasing the overall cost per capita, and improving the clinician experience – and I believe that by doing this we can achieve significant reductions in unnecessary hospitalisations,” said Professor Hespe. “For me it is about designing and implementing an Australian model of care that achieves a patient centred medical ‘home’.”
Under this model Professor Hespe said health care is truly patient centred rather than health care provider centric and continuity of care is crucial via the one “home”.
“There are promising indications from a number of yet to be published local studies that this approach will result in significant reductions in hospitalisations and associated healthcare costs,” she said.
As a committed partner with governments and the health sector, Novartis Australia is working with the healthcare community to reduce preventable hospitalisations and has supported several pilot projects in this area.
These include multi-stakeholder public-private partnerships to address the burden of potentially preventable hospitalisations due to heart failure. With project coordination by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, a pilot was initiated in Tasmania with Primary Health Tasmania, Heart Foundation Tasmania and the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services. This project focused on enhancing heart failure management of patients in enrolled general practices, increasing patient self-management, and optimising transfer-of-care processes.
The experiences to date further support the strength of a multidisciplinary approach to solving complex health problems such as preventable hospitalisations.
In NSW the Heart Failure Integrated Care Project was a joint venture between South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Central and Eastern Sydney PHN and Novartis Australia to develop a primary care based heart failure disease management program through a partnership between hospital and general practice clinicians. Opportunities and barriers were identified and solutions implemented to inform a primary care based chronic heart failure disease management program.
To view more information about the symposium follow this link:
(ahha.asn.au/events/%E2%80%9Cpotentially-preventable-hospitalisations%E2%80%9D-thought-leadership-forum)
Novartis Australia World Hospital Congress Symposium on Preventable Hospitalisations (PDF 0.1 MB)