A proposal seeking $160,000 for the first part of a project to see where care could be improved for Dunedin Hospital orthopaedic patients will be considered at the first meeting of the new Southern District Health Board tomorrow.
An application for the whole $417,500 project was turned down by the Ministry of Health this year, but the ministry has indicated it would support the second part of the project next year.
In her report to the board, chief operating officer (Otago) Vivian Blake said waiting until 2011-12 would significantly delay the achievement from the project and the application of what was learned to other parts of the hospital.
The project would apply a system-wide approach to improving the treatment of orthopaedic patients, mapping and evaluating their journey from the time they arrived at the emergency department to their discharge from hospital.
Difficulties with the system would be identified and hopefully reduced or removed, with the idea that savings in time and money could be used to reduce waiting time for patients to receive orthopaedic surgery.
It was also hoped it would free up money for extra elective surgery.
"It is anticipated that this redesign will also have a positive effect on ED wait times by reducing bed block in the wards," Mrs Blake said.
The success of the programme would be measured in three ways - by the time it takes to get patients presenting with fractured neck of femur to an operating theatre (at present 42 hours), the number of elective orthopaedic lists or patients cancelled due to acute demand in orthopaedics and the increase in the number of elective procedures.
Mrs Blake sought the $160,000 board funding so work could start immediately on the diagnostic phase which is expected to take six months.
This phase is expected to include a small pilot testing suggested solutions.
The largest costs for this phase would be $60,000 for expertise on transformation methods from outside the board, $45,000 for a project manager and $40,000 for clinical leadership.
The second nine-month phase would involve implementing the changes found necessary, estimated to cost a further $275,000, also mostly for transformation expertise ($90,000), project management ($67,500) and clinical leadership ($60,000).
Funding for this will be sought from the ministry.
