Dying at home: impact of Covid-19 on delivery of Rapid response home based OT services and model of care

Mrs Mai-Anh Groves1

1Royal Melbourne Hospital/ Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Issue
RAPID response teams during COVID-19 required this team to adopt a telehealth/remote model; imposing challenges to delivery of practical interventions like assistive equipment provision and caregiver training; particularly for the OT components.

Aim
To evaluate the impact of a new telehealth model of care on the type, timing, and amount of OT delivered within a rapid response palliative care team.

Design
Service model development and evaluation using retrospective patient and clinical activity data from the medical record.

Results
Assessment and intervention pathways and resources were developed and implemented internally to assist with the delivery of a COVID-safe home assessment, phone and telehealth consults. Preliminary audit data reveals that 63 patients were referred to OT, 46% were telephone/telehealth consults, and 54% seen face to face. 39% patients died at home; comparable to pre-COVID data of XXX home deaths. Average response of 3 days with 1-3 number of OT contacts per patient, and average of 109 minutes per session. Patients received two or more interventions; carer training and equipment provision being the most common (61% and 75%). Complete data analysis will be presented and supported by case studies demonstrating the new model.

Conclusion
It is anticipated that data will demonstrate OT can continue to deliver core intervention components of a rapid response service using a hybrid model of telehealth/phone and face to face. As COVID-19 restrictions lessen; further evaluation of what aspects of this model can be maintained and how this may benefit service cost and efficiencies are required.


Biography:

Mai-Anh has 10 years of diverse Occupational therapy experience working within both community and hospital settings and completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care. She is committed to providing holistic quality care that is focused on the individual and has enjoyed working at Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for over the past 4 years.

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