Monash Children’s Hospital at Home

Monash Children’s Hospital at Home aims to:

• promote parental confidence and competence in caring for your child at home
• encourage continuity of care between the hospital and the community
• liaise with the medical/nursing/allied health staff caring for infants/children during their hospital admission
• liaise with community-based health professionals such as GPs and Maternal and Child Health Nurses to ensure continuity of care after discharge from Monash Children’s Hospital at Home
• complement, rather than duplicate, existing nursing services
• shorten the length of time in hospital and enhance recovery time in a home environment

Making the move from hospital to home easier for children with complex medical care needs

Services offered

• Administration of IV/subcutaneous medications
• Provision of medical supplies, and equipment for hire in the home
• Liaison with relevant community nursing/medical support service providers
• Parental education, and support home visits post-hospitalisation
• Overnight oximetry and other home monitoring
• Carer education, assessment, and monitoring of in-home/school carers
• Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
• 24 hr on call phone support service for HITH patients
• Dressings/wound care
• Growth monitoring for small/premature infants or those with growth issues
• Care of patients with stomas and feeding tubes
• Physiotherapy (intensive)
• Dietetic support (intensive)

Programs 

Monash Children’s Hospital at Home is contracted to provide nursing services through ‘fee for service’ programs. There is no out of pocket cost except consumables and equipment hire. Programs offered include post-acute care, hospital-in-the-home, family choice program and school education.

Post-Acute Care

This service can provide up to three home visits, usually on a weekly basis. Services are short-term and aim to support and educate the family in the transition period from hospital to home.

Hospital-in-the-home

An alternative to inpatient stay for medically stable patients. Daily nursing visits are provided for one to two weeks for children with complex needs, who require more intensive support in the short-term. The child is classified as an inpatient and staff maintain close liaison with hospital medical staff.

Complex Kids

Coordinated through the Royal Children’s Hospital Complex Care Hub, this service provides funding and support through Monash Children’s Hospital at Home for families with babies/children whose complex medical/nursing needs require ongoing interventions. The program enables the families to provide this care in the home.

School Education

Education and support is provided for school, kindergarten and early intervention centre staff responsible for the education of children who have special medical care needs.

Referrals 

Please refer as early as possible before the child’s anticipated discharge date.

Contact the HITH/PAC Clinical Coordinator on (03) 8572 3147. Referrals need to be made through your child’s medical/nursing management team in the hospital. Parents may discuss this option with the team who will complete the relevant referral form (Paediatric/Neonatal.).

After a referral is made, the family is contacted and an assessment made on the most appropriate service.

There is no charge for services to patients being discharged from Monash Children’s Hospital. Families requiring long-term consumables/equipment hire will be invoiced monthly. Services for those families without Medicare cards can be provided on a ‘fee for service’ basis.

Who is eligible?

Any patient up to 18-years-of-age whose home care will involve at least one of the following:

• Premature infants born at less than 35 weeks
• Low birth weight infants whose discharge weight is less than 2500g
• Feeding difficulties/poor weight gain
• Surgical interventions/dressings
• Oxygen therapy/tracheostomy care
• Nasogastric/jejunal/gastrostomy tube feeding
• IV antibiotics/subcutaneous medications
• Seizure management
• Home monitoring (any type)
• Bladder/bowel/ostomy care
• Need for special parent education or support
• Babies/children with special medical needs
• Nasogastric/jejunal/gastrostomy tube/parenteral feeding
• Daily physiotherapy requirement
• Intensive Dietetic support
• Other home care needs which would otherwise keep the child in hospital at the discretion of the HITH service

Hours

Monday to Sunday, 7.30am–4pm

Following discharge from Monash Children’s Hospital at Home, parents/carers are advised to seek assistance from usual sources, their Maternal and Child Health nurse, GP or in an emergency, their local Emergency Department.

Monash Children’s Hospital at Home
Level 2, 246 Clayton Road, Clayton VIC 3168
Phone: (03) 8572 3005 (main reception)
HITH/PAC Clinical Coordinator phone: (03) 8572 3147
Email: monashchildrensathome@monashhealth.org