Frailty Car initiative

19/07/2021

St. Vincent’s Foundation is delighted to support the purchase, in partnership with St. Vincent’s University Hospital, of a specialist vehicle for delivery of patient care for the EDITH (Emergency Department in the Home) service.

The initiative, to shift care from Emergency Department (ED) to a team travelling to patients’ homes, follows a trial period from early 2020 and is now firmly established as an effective way of treating patients. The suitable cohort of patients include those suffering dehydration, falls, pain and orthostatic hypotension.  The visiting team will typically be an ED doctor, Occupational Health staff and an Advanced Paramedic.

Karen O’Donohoe, Business & Operations Manager, SVUH summarises the effectiveness of the project:

“…The Team see, review and treat an average of 10 patients/day and to date approx. 91% of this group have been able to have their complete episode of care provided in their home.  Of the 9% that required conveyance to Hospital some of these required attendance for diagnostics only and were able to go home immediately afterwards and did not require overnight admission. To date, almost 3,000 patients have benefited from this service, which has been a resounding success and a positive innovation for the Patients, the Staff and Hospital as a whole of which we are very proud…”

The pictures below capture some of the staff involved in this superb development.