Community Partnerships Unit

Community Partnerships Unit works with staff to improve continuity of care as patients move from hospital services to the community.

 This work takes many forms, through assisting staff and departments to make connections with general practitioners and community services, to undertaking specific projects.
Among its responsibilities and initiatives are:

 Assisting medical and Health Information Services staff to develop a Patient Transfer Advice, an electronic discharge summary for GPs to provide timely clinical information about their patient's hospital stay in hospital. It also provides an invaluable summary for RMH staff if patients need further RMH services.

 Supporting the Melbourne Health Primare Care and Population Health Advisory Committee. The Committee links Melbourne Health with community and primary health services together to plan services and develop collaborative approaches to community health issues, such as obesity.

 Collaborative service development. Over the past three years, RMH and community partner agencies have established very successful services for people with complex and chronic conditions who are at high risk of hospitalisation. These HARP-funded (Hospital Admission Risk Project) services have improved patients' health outcomes and quality of life, and have also significantly reduced the need for these patients to visit the Emergency Department or be admitted to hospital.

Meet the Unit
The Community Partnerships Unit works as a team and are available to provide advice, contacts and support for any initiatives to improve communication and collaboration with community providers and Melbourne Health consumers.

	Jane Gilchrist Community Partnerships Manager Jane manages the HARP services and focuses on developing collaborative services with community services.