New surgical pathways helping patients return home sooner

The expansion of surgical pathways through RMH@Home will see more patients continue their recovery at home following their operations, helping to reduce their length of stay in hospital and increase our capacity to conduct planned surgery for more Victorians.

RMH@Home Acute Surgical Liaison Clinical Nurse Consultant, Sarah Gervasoni said that the introduction of new surgical pathways will see many patients return home within 24 to 48 hours of their procedure.

“We know that people are keen to return home as soon as possible after their surgery, and the evidence supports that it can better for their recovery too,” Sarah said.

“We recently launched the first of these new pathways – focusing on planned prostate and bladder procedures – and believe that this model of care has real potential following other surgeries too.”

RMH@Home Acute NUM, Douglas Allan, said that eligible patients taking part in new surgical pathways would be carefully screened to ensure they can look after themselves at home.

“We’ll be supporting patients through telehealth and in-person home visits and provide plenty of education and handout resources – to make sure that people feel well supported at home,” Douglas said.

“It’s a really exciting initiative and by expanding our model of care to support this, I think we’re really looking at the future of health care.”