How can we help you today?
"After hours" refers to times outside of standard operating hours, including evenings, nighttime, and weekends.
The RACH After-hours Toolkit was developed and tailored based on ideas and feedback from over a hundred stakeholders who attended workshops and consultations in Cairns, Townsville, and Mackay. Stakeholders who participated in consultations include:
-
RACH management and clinical staff
-
aged care workers
-
general practitioners
-
pharmacists
-
Queensland Ambulance Service
-
general practice liaison officers
-
Hospital and Health Service representatives
-
Hospital in the Home
-
Frailty Intervention Team
-
Care in the Right Settings
-
Older Persons Integrated Health Service.
The After-hours Toolkit provides resources that support RACHs with assessing current preparedness, managing action plans for individual residents, communicating effectively with relevant family members, and locating local health, welfare, and emergency services to assist them in the after-hours period.
Access the full NQPHN RACH After-hours Toolkit.
The After-hours Action Planning Audit Tool enables RACHs to self-assess their current after-hours preparedness, identify gaps in after-hours capabilities, and discover which resources, processes, and procedures could be adopted to improve residents' access to appropriate medical care.
Use this tool to assess the status of your RACH's after-hours preparedness. It contains links to other helpful after-hours resources.
To download the resource, click here.
The After-hours Family fact sheet is an informative flyer for the family members and carers of RACH residents to help them understand:
- what happens if someone is unwell after-hours (at night or on the weekend)
- how families can help.
To download the resource, click here.
The After-hours Family fact sheet has been developed by PHNs in a range of languages other than English, including Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Maltese, Punjabi, Turkish, Vietnamese, Croatian, Dutch, German, Macedonian, Sinhalese, Spanish and Tamil. Translated versions can be found here.
The After-hours Response Flow Chart is a helpful and easy-to-follow flow chart that guides staff in making decisions regarding clinical situations that occur outside of business hours.
It can assist clinical and non-clinical staff in escalating a situation, and follows the ISBAR (Identify, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) Communication Tool for handover of care.
To download the resource, click here.
Based on the ISBAR (Identify, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) Communication Tool, the Medical Support Checklist tool is designed to aid staff in responding to residents who are unwell and require medical support.
It is best utilised by completing the form and contacting services to provide information on a resident’s condition, such as their general practitioner, locum service, or Virtual Emergency Care Service (VECS) - Queensland Virtual Hospital. To assess which service may be most appropriate to your needs, and whether the Virtual Emergency Care Service is right for you, use the Healthdirect Symptom Checker at www.healthdirect.gov.au/symptom-checker
The checklist can be printed and bound as an A4 notepad or saved as a digital copy distributed to all nursing stations for use on electronic devices.
To download the resource, click here.
The Individual Resident After-hours Action Plan provides a detailed summary of a resident’s after-hours care plans, enabling staff to quickly access current and key information during an emergency.
Keep the plan secure and easily accessible so staff can always use it, ensuring the privacy of residents’ records and information. Regularly review and update each plan to reflect the changing needs of your residents.
To download the resource, click here.
The Facility After-hours Action Plan is a fillable template developed to support RACHs in identifying, recording, and sharing contacts with staff who may need to access this information during an after-hours care scenario.
The completed plan should be available as a printed copy in locations easily accessible to staff working after hours.
To download the resource, click here.
The Clinical Pathways QR Code Resources conveniently provide information that directs to Queensland Health’s Residential Aged Care Facility Support Service (RaSS) Clinical Guidelines for 31 different conditions. Clinical staff can use it to assist with managing acute care on-site, where appropriate, and as a guide for the escalation of care and handovers, as necessary.
HealthPathways QR resources are available for each northern Queensland region, providing localised and relevant information and resources to guide management on a broad range of conditions and situations. Your nursing team can use the resource to access team-based perspectives and support, as well as locum or telehealth general practice service referral information within local HealthPathways platforms.
The resource is available in several formats, including a print-ready A4 handbook, A3 poster, or A5 document.
To download the A3 poster, click here.
To download the A5 document, click here.
To download the A4 handbook, click here.
These resources can be prominently displayed to assist clinical staff in finding and following residential aged care clinical pathways and supporting decision-making about care and referral for acute clinical needs.
NQPHN recommends that RACHs refer to healthdirect’s National Health Services Directory to identify key providers before acute after-hours scenarios.
The After-hours Service Directories resource is a template that RACHs can use similarly or alternately to the Facility After-hours Action Plan, as a current contact list to reference in after-hours scenarios.
The Word document format enables easy customisation should you work with multiple general practitioners with different after-hours response preferences for their patients’ care.
It is essential to keep these contacts current and easily accessible to all staff at all times.
To download the resource, click here.
Latest news
