A review of the processes of care for the management of people with a spinal cord injury on the orthopaedics wards at the Princess Alexandra Hospital

About the Project

Project aims and objective:

The project aims to:

1.       To clearly define and understand the current processes of care for the management of patients with an acute SCI on the orthopaedics wards.

2.       To identify where improvements can be made to optimise the care provided to patients with an acute SCI on the orthopaedics ward and to improve patient outcomes.

SCI is a devastating injury. Having a targeted, efficient and effective approach to early management of these patients is crucial to promote a positive beginning to the recovery process. Outputs from the Fellowship will be used to quantify current limitations to the provision of best practice care to this patient subset. They will also be used as the basis to develop tailored solutions to improve patient care, as well as for further research in this area.

Project significance and expected outcome:

The project is significant to The Hopkins Centre, Princess Alexandra Hospital and Metro South Health as it will provide, for the first time, a detailed view of the processes that exist for the early management of patients with a SCI on the orthopaedics ward, from the perspective of both staff and patient. The outputs of the study will provide the basis for the second part of the project - Optimising the processes of care for the management of people with a Spinal Cord Injury on the Orthopaedics Ward at the Princess Alexandra Hospital: Solutions Design, Implementation and Evaluation. A Hopkins seed grant has been secured to fund this next phase, which is due to commence Feb/March 2021. It is anticipated that the implementation of tailored, contextually specific solutions will result in improved patient and staff outcomes.

Project Status:

The project commenced in 2019 and is currently focused on data analysis, with planning and funding for phase two of the project now underway.

Project Funding:

This project is funded by a Hopkins Centre Seed Grant and the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC).

The project is proudly supported by Griffith University and the Division of Rehabilitation at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Hospital and Health Service.

Research Team: 

Glenn Verner-Wren, THC, Griffith University and Division of Rehabilitation, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Hospital and Health Service (LINK PROFILE)

Prof Michele Foster - Hopkins Centre, Griffith University 

Prof Timothy Geraghty - THC, Griffith University and Division of Rehabilitation, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Hospital and Health Service (LINK PROFILE)

Dr Brian Bell - Executive Director medical services, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Hospital and Health Service

Rachel Jones - CNC SIU, Division of Rehabilitation, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Hospital and Health Service 

Dr Letitia Burridge - Hopkins Centre, Griffith University 

Ms Pieta-Lee Black - Nurse educator, Orthopaedics ward, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Hospital and Health Service

Dr Elise Gane - Conjoint research fellow, PT department PAH and UQ school of Health and Rehab Sciences