July 2004

Medihotel makes sense—particularly sight or sound

One of Melbourne’s major specialist hospitals will be able to better and more quickly treat emergency and elective surgery patients after the opening of an innovative Medihotel.

Opening the Medihotel at the Eye and Ear Hospital, Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said the 10-bed facility would accommodate people who needed a course of treatment or tests, hospital pre-admission or recovery but were not ill enough to require an acute hospital bed.

‘This facility overcomes a major blockage in the hospital’s system by relieving pressure on acute beds and making them available for emergency and other serious patients,’ Ms Pike said.

‘Sometimes a patient is not well enough to go home and requires some healthcare supervision but is not sick enough to occupy an acute hospital bed.

‘Before the Medihotel opening, there would have been no choice but to put them in a hospital bed, reducing beds for elective surgery patients and increasing the waits for emergency patients.’

The Eye and Ear’s Medihotel, the fifth of its kind in the State, is an important part of the Government’s Hospital Demand Management Strategy (HDMS) to tailor care to patients and be smarter about use of beds.

Ms Pike said the Government had provided $247,000 to the Eye and Ear Hospital through the HDMS to establish and operate the Medihotel.

The Medihotel is able to provide intermediate care for patients recovering from surgery, who otherwise would have needed to stay in hospital for a number of days.

They are able to be supported and monitored close to, or within, the hospital.

‘Hospital medical staff are often more comfortable discharging patients to Medihotels, where they can maintain some level of supervision—rather than home, where continued contact and review is harder,’ Ms Pike said.

While Medihotels can be used for a range of patients, its occupants are mainly surgical patients who either live in the country or have no suitable carer at home, or who need supervision—rather than hospitalisation—after their operation.

Ms Pike said feedback indicated patients liked staying in Medihotels because they provided a safe, comfortable and quiet environment away from the noise and bustle of a general ward.

‘Patients view them as a place where they can maintain or regain their independence, which helps their recovery.

‘Medihotel patients enjoy not being treated as ‘sick’ and not needlessly taking up a hospital bed.’

Victoria’s other Medihotels are at the Alfred, Box Hill, Royal Melbourne and St Vincent’s.