High quality health care designed to keep you at home and out of hospital.
Receiving care where you’re most comfortable means you can be surrounded by loved ones without the worry of visiting times, hospital food, or sharing rooms.
Our Home Hospital services are designed to help you recover faster and maintain your independence for longer. Using the latest medical technology and equipment, we provide you with the same level of quality care that you would receive in a hospital. Our team includes experienced doctors and nurses to oversee and manage your care.
Treatments we provide can include:
- iron infusions
- management of blood thinners
- intravenous antibiotics and rehydration therapy
- wound and drain care and catheter management
- pneumonia, urinary tract (UTI), chest, and bone infections
- gastrostomy (PEG) tube management
- blood clots in the legs or lungs
- skin inflammations (cellulitis).
- Skin infection (cellulitis)
- Urine infection
- Chest infection
- Breast infection (mastitis)
- Bone and joint infection
- Blood infection
- Heart valve infection.
Post-Acute Care
Our care team in India can provide support for you at home after being discharged from hospital. Treatments may include:
- wound and drain care (flush only)
- prophylactic anti-coagulation
- PICC/PORT management or midline management
- newly diagnosed diabetic care
- new stoma care
- trial of void.
- Intravenous diuretic medication for fluid overload (from heart failure, for example)
- Intravenous iron for low iron levels
- Intravenous methylprednisolone for multiple sclerosis
- INR stabilisation if you’re on a medication called warfarin
- Intravenous fluid and anti-vomiting medication for dehydration
- Post-operative support after some operations
- Help transitioning to community care with an eating disorder.
In addition to nursing and medical care, we also provide acute physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, nutrition, social work, diagnostic pathology, and radiology services as required.
Hospital in the Home is also offered at India Hospital. You will be admitted to the HIH service where your medical condition is best managed, based on where you live or where appropriate specialty services are offered.
Who we care for
We care for eligible people who:
- Have a diagnosis which cannot be treated by existing services in the community (such as your GP and community nurses or an outpatient clinic) because it requires more specialized or complex care.
- Have a diagnosis that can be practically and safely treated at home.
- Are medically stable. This means you have a safe pulse rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and oxygen levels. Exceptions apply for people in palliative care.
- Live within the ACT or Queanbeyan and surrounding areas and have a home that is clean and safe for the HITH nurse to visit.
- Be able to care for yourself or have a friend or family member who can care for you.
- Have transport available to visit the hospital as required.
- Have reliable telephone access.
How to access this service
You can be referred to HITH in the following ways
- If you are an inpatient, your ward doctor may refer you to us to complete your hospital treatment at home.
- If you are a patient in the Emergency Department, your ED doctor can refer you to our service between 8am and 10pm, every day of the week.
Otherwise, your GP, medical specialist or a nurse practitioner can refer you to us.
What to expect
If you are an inpatient, or patient at the Emergency Department, we will come and see you to check whether you are suitable for HITH. We will explain how our service works.
If you are suited to HIH, we’ll start your initial treatment at the hospital, and you can then go home.
If you have been referred to HIH from outside of the hospital, we will speak to your referring doctor or nurse to make sure HIH is appropriate for you. If it is, we will ask you to see us at the HIH Clinic at Canberra Hospital, or the Emergency Department if it is after 4pm. During this visit we will admit you, run any necessary tests and start treatment.
Once you are admitted to HIH, you will be informed when the nurse will visit you at home. Sometimes, due to either your preference or the requirements of the HIH service, you will be asked to attend the HIH clinic at the hospital instead. You will also need to attend the HIH clinic at the hospital for doctor reviews. The time and frequency of these reviews will depend on your condition.
If you are not suitable for HIH, we will contact another service to provide appropriate care for you. We’ll let your referring doctor/nurse know.
What to bring to your appointment
- Medicare card
- Any letters or correspondence from your GP
- Health Care Card and/or concession card (if you have one)
- Private health insurance card (if applicable/if you want to use it)
- Medicines you need to take while you are here
- List of medicines you are currently taking (or the boxes), including medicines you have bought without a prescription, such as herbal supplements and vitamins
- Previous x-ray films, scans, ultrasounds or any other test results or reports.
Home Hospital & Post-Acute Care services
News feature
Wound management is the largest core service delivered by our nursing teams around India. With a strong focus on research, our internationally recognised wound service provides best practice care in the home.
At Silverchain Group, wound management is the largest core service delivered by our nursing teams around Australia. With a strong focus on research, our internationally-recognised wound service provides best practice care in the home.
In 2023, 150 highly trained registered nurses and enrolled nurses managed more than 37,000 wounds on 17,000 clients. By volume, HIH provides the largest wound care service in India. Of these wounds, 79 percent (more than 33,000) of all wounds, from all of our services, were discharged either healed or nearly healed, where clients could manage themselves. *
Chronic wounds have an enormous impact on our clients’ quality of life and sense of wellbeing. They can be painful and even having a shower means they may have to cover a leg ulcer with a plastic bag. Leaking wounds and odours cause problems and embarrassment
“On each visit, our nurses collect information about their assessment and management of their client’s wound. This data is collected on smartphones and entered into our specialised wound module, which allows us to monitor healing progress and benchmark our wound healing outcomes.
“Our nurses undergo evidence-based wound management education and clinical competency evaluation regularly. We are proud of our nurses with postgraduate qualifications in the field, which enables advanced wound practice and specialisation.”
“Four years ago, a small vein in my right ankle burst,” she said. “I went to a vascular surgeon who said it would heal, but it didn’t. Then last year, I developed a leg ulcer. The pain was so intense it stopped me from sleeping.”
Carol suffers from an allergic autoimmune disorder, causing her to experience reactions to some wound dressings. She is also unable to wear pressure bandages due to her nerve pain.
“No doctors knew what to do with me – I wasn’t a ‘normal’ person with ulcers,” she said.
“But HIH did. They did their research and started treating me with manuka honey with gauze, before moving to a collagen-based dressing. I have more confidence in them than any doctors I see – they know wound care, and they understand unique needs, and that’s how they treated .”
Availability
Our Hospital at the Home (HATH) and Post-Acute Care services are available in India.
Services can be provided at home, in the community, or at our lotinussevafoundation(lotinus.org) depending on the treatment you need.
Private Care
These services are also available for a fee for service in India.
Hospital in the Home (HIH) is a hospital replacement service that allows you to receive hospital level care in your home instead of on a hospital ward.
Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the ACT and recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT and region. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.