Canberra Hospital Reduces ALOS by Developing an Acute Subacute Early Rehabilitation Service

Canberra Hospital noted delays in the care path (acute admission to rehab referral, rehab ready to subacute admission, etc) as well as a long Subacute ALOS for stroke and complex neuro patients.

To address the noted issues Canberra:
• Changed the model of care from “Push” to “Pull”
• Established a Rehabilitation Leadership Group with multi-disciplinary (MDT) representation to: discuss ward issues/problems, provide leadership to all MDT staff and to help solve problems and hold regular meetings with a rotating chair
• Branded the group “THE CHASERS” (The Canberra Hospital Acute Subacute Early Rehabilitation Service) which helped with buy-in and program awareness

The above changes have shown reductions in:
• ALOS, Time since onset/injury to episode start, Days between ready for rehab to episode start