Balmain Hospital is a community based hospital, which has been caring for people since 1885 and is dedicated to Aged Care, Rehabilitation and General Practice. Balmain Hospital is committed to providing the highest standards of health care, to meet individual needs. It has 98 beds. CHOPS was introduced in 2016 as a framework to assist in providing education and support to all staff in the care of elderly patients who are confused in hospital which can be the result of dementia, delirium or other neurological conditions. Balmain Hospital staff have engaged enthusiastically in all areas of the project, which involve reviewing and evaluating all aspects are care related to elderly people in hospital who are confused.
The program was embraced from all sections of the hospital. During 2017 there have been major implementations including eMR2, major capital works and hospital accreditation. Despite this, the CHOPS program remained a strong priority for Balmain Hospital.
Along with strong hospital executive and Nurse Unit Manager NUM/CNE support, the success of CHOPS at Balmain Hospital is also attributed to having a Dementia and Delirium Clinical Nurse Consultant (CNC) who took lead of the program. Our main aim was to ensure that the CHOPS program was embraced by not only the nursing division but also the multi-disciplinary team and ancillary staff.
Continue to move forward – there will be challenges if there is a number of competing priorities in the hospital. Make regular meetings with your Executive sponsor for support.
Balmain Hospital are currently undergoing review post implementation with results reported back to staff, family and carers. What is evident is that staff at Balmain Hospital are interested in ongoing education about how they can provide best practice care to the patients in their care who are elderly and confused.
For more information, contact Hayley Sciuriaga on hayley.sciuriaga@sswahs.nsw.gov.au.