Pushing the envelope

Brisbane North PHN has recently rolled out two initiatives – Yellow Envelope and the Geriatric Outreach Assessment Service – to help or minimise the transition of aged care residents from facilities to hospitals.“The Yellow Envelope is a document in which residential aged care facilities can enclose a resident’s key healthcare information if they need togo to hospital,” said Brisbane North PHN executive via ambulance to emergency departments for conditions that could be treated in their place of residence, in their home, if there were sufficient support services to do that. GPs are very busy in their practices and it’s difficult for them to get out and visit people. They have appointment schedules and so it’s hard for them to provide that service. Also sometimes it requires some specialist expertise that is difficult manager, aged and community care, Michele Smith. “It supports safer clinical handover between the aged care facility and the hospital.