Exploring interhospital transfers and partnerships in the hospital sector in New South Wales, Australia.

Conclusion NSW IHTs were often to hospitals with greater speciality services. The patterns of interhospital interactions could be affected by organisational and regional preferences.What is known about the topic? IHTs aim to provide efficient and effective care. Nonetheless, information on transfers and the sharing of care among hospitals in an Australian setting is lacking. Studies of transfers and hospital partnership patterns will inform efforts to improve patient-centred transfers and hospital accountability in terms of end outcomes for patients.What does this paper add? Transfer-in patients accounted for 3.9% of all NSW admissions; they were often (61%) transferred to hospitals with greater speciality services. The number of IHTs and sharing of care among hospitals varied across hospital peer groups, and could have been affected by organisational and regional preferences.What are the implications for practitioners? The findings of the present study suggest that different patterns of IHTs may not only have resulted from clinical priorities, but that organisational and regional preferences are also likely to be influential factors. Patient-centred IHTs and the development of guidelines need to be pursued to enhance the care and functionality of healthcare. Patient sharing should be acknowledged in hospital and regional performance profiling. PMID: 27809958 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research