New COVID home visiting service

From Wednesday 27 April Central and Eastern Sydney PHN will be commencing a new COVID home visiting service. The COVID@Home Service provides an in-home assessment service delivered by a registered nurse with the support of a general practitioner.

Eligibility criteria:

This service is aimed at COVID positive patients whose regular GP is not able to undertake home visits but where such a visit is required for medical and other support reasons while the patient is isolating.  

About the service:

Patient referrals will be triaged to determine whether the patient requires a home visit for assessment or management of their acute COVID illness or other health conditions impacted by their COVID positive status and having to remain isolated.

Patients who are end-of-life or are receiving palliative care are not eligible for this service as are those who do not have any significant health or unmanaged safety risks.

If determined a home visit is required, the visiting health care provider will visit the patient in their home and perform an assessment of the patient. They will assess their overall health, social wellbeing and the home environment.

This assessment will ensure the appropriate level of care is provided to support the patient. Any immediate health concerns that need to be addressed to support the patient at that time will be acted upon by the health care provider.

A report will be sent to the referring GP on the assessment and include details of any actions taken and further recommendations.

Patients who are end-of-life or are receiving palliative care are not eligible for this service as are those who do not have any significant health or unmanaged safety risks.

Referral form and how to refer:

• CESPHN has developed a referral form template (RTF) that can be imported into Medical Director/Best Practice. This referral form and instructions on how to import and send electronically can be found on the CESPHN website.
• For those practices that do not have Medical Director or Best Practice, Word and pdf versions of the referral are available here.
• GPs can refer their COVID positive patients via secure messaging options or via fax (02 9194 2789).

HealthPathways Sydney and South Eastern Sydney will be updated accordingly to reflect this new service.

For further enquiries, please contact coronavirus@cesphn.com.au