Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2023

Finding a better way : Defining a strategy for Allied Health across multiple providers in a regional cancer service (#339)

Diane Davey 1 , Oscar Ramsden 1 , Virginia Mitsch 1
  1. Albury Wodonga Health, Albury, NSW, Australia

Introduction: The Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre (AWRCC) provides cancer services to North East Victoria and Southern NSW. Cancer services are provided by a number of different providers through public/private partnerships with service providers. Allied health services across the patient journey, when provided, can be fragmented and/or unavailable, impacting patient outcomes and patient experience. AWRCC’s multiple supplier arrangements inhibit data sharing between clinicians and can result in inconsistencies in patient triaging/prioritisation as well as duplication of effort for allied health professionals..

Funded by Hume Regional Integrated Cancer Service (HRICS) service improvement grants, the project aims to identify the gaps in allied health services across the AWRCC cancer service and define a strategy and actionable roadmap for implementation. 

Methods: This project will follow redesign methodology, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection. Project initiation, start up and diagnostics [current state analysis] will be completed as well as solution design / future state.  Implementation planning will form the basis for the road map. The project will leverage existing frameworks and will include stakeholder consultation and collaboration with key allied health clinicians, Albury Wodonga Health stakeholders and service providers as well as consumer representatives, ensuring that patient outcomes and experiences are captured. 

Results/Findings: The findings from this project will be presented, including the key challenges and how these were managed by the project team. The outcomes will include an overview of current state and future state of allied health services for AWRCC patients and the implementation roadmap. 

Conclusion:  Providing comprehensive cancer care closer to home is a shared vision across all those who provide services to cancer patients at AWRCC. Delivering a seamless patient experience across multiple disparate public and private providers is challenging. This quality improvement project will share its experience in defining a cross entity allied health strategy and roadmap.

  1. Nightingale, G., Burhenn, P. S., Puts, M., Stolz-Baskett, P., Haase, K. R., Sattar, S., & Kenis, C. (2020). Integrating nurses and allied health professionals in the care of older adults with cancer: A report from the International Society of Geriatric Oncology Nursing and Allied Health Interest Group. Journal of Geriatric Oncology, 11(2), 187–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgo.2019.06.012
  2. Ray H, Beaumont A, Loeliger J, Martin A, Marston C, Gough K, Bordia S, Ftanou M, Kiss N. Implementation of a Multidisciplinary Allied Health Optimisation Clinic for Cancer Patients with Complex Needs. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2020; 9(8):2431. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9082431
  3. Rocke, J., Mclaren, O., Hardman, J., Garas, G., Smith, M. E., Ishii, H., Constable, J., Tikka, T., Wie Liu, Z., & Williams, R. (2019). The role of Allied healthcare professionals in head and Neck Cancer Surveillance: A systematic review. Clinical Otolaryngology, 45(1), 83–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/coa.13471