Mrs Kirsten Mitchener1, Ms Deanne Layton1, Mr Rob Lasslett2
1Mercy Palliative Care, Sunshine, Australia, 2Mercy Palliative Care, Sunshine, Australia, 3Ambulance Victoria, Port Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Kirsten has twenty years of experience in palliative care, having worked across both inpatient and community settings. She is currently pursuing a Master of Nurse Practitioner degree and works as a Clinical Nurse Consultant in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria.
Abstract:
An increasing number of community palliative care patients were calling Ambulance Victoria (AV) for assistance despite the availability of Mercy Palliative Care (MPC), which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These calls often resulted in hospital transfers, with AV frequently unaware that specialist palliative care services were already involved with the patients.
Aims:
The primary goal was to improve clinical and end-of-life outcomes by better integrating systems between MPC and AV through a shared alert mechanism.
Methods:
Bi-monthly meetings were held between AV and MPC teams to identify areas for improvement, build mutual understanding, and share knowledge of each service’s capabilities. A shared alert system was implemented to notify AV when community patients were known to MPC, guiding paramedics to contact MPC for support before initiating hospital transfers. Reciprocal site visits between both organizations were conducted to deepen understanding of each other’s services and processes. This collaborative approach also opened new communication pathways, enhancing real-time coordination between the teams.
Results:
A digital link was successfully established between MPC and AV systems, enabling an effective alert system that led to a noticeable reduction in hospital transfers for community palliative patients. This integration improved clinical outcomes by supporting more aligned care with patients’ Advance Care Directives. Both MPC and AV staff reported increased confidence in contacting each other when needed. An unexpected benefit was an increase in AV’s confidence to refer patients to MPC who were previously unknown to the service.
Conclusion:
The partnership between Ambulance Victoria and Mercy Palliative Care has created an innovative model that improves outcomes for community palliative care patients, reduces unnecessary emergency department visits, and strengthens collaborative care.