STAT stories

Community based therapy services for children, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy are often faced with high demand and long waiting lists. The consequences of waiting for these services can be significant, as children miss out on an important window of opportunity for treatment as their young brains develop and they move through educational milestones such as starting school.

The CSTAT project trialled the STAT model in 5 paediatric community health services in Melbourne. The project was funded by the Department of Health and Community Services, as well as the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) via funding for a Translating Research Into Practice Fellowship held by Principal Investigator Dr Katherine Harding.

The results of this study were presented as a poster at the biannual conference of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand in, Sydney, December 2022.

Annie Lewis led the first trial of the STAT model in a medical outpatient clinic. This before and after trial with a time series analysis and process evaluation was set in the epilepsy clinic at Box Hill Hospital. A waitlist of 600 people was virtually eliminated through a structured backlog reduction approach, without increasing the waiting time. A poster describing the backlog reduction process was delivered by Annie at the Epilepsy Society of Australia Annual Conference, and awarded a special commendation by the Education and Scientific Meeting Committees in recognition of an outstanding scientific presentation.

A follow up of the clinic two years after STAT was implemented showed that benefits had largely been sustained, although there were some early signs of old habits returning. This study highlighted a range of issues that need attention to ensure long term sustainability of wait list interventions.

In 2019 the STAT project was selected as a finalist in La Trobe University’s Research Translation Awards.  This brief video prepared for the event tells the story of development and implementation of the STAT model from the perspective of lead researcher Katherine Harding, and Stacey Manfield, Manager of Allied Health and Ambulatory Services, North East Health, who implemented the model in Wangaratta, Victoria.

After a long consultation process with researchers, service providers and other key stakeholders, the Department of Health released a new Demand Management Toolkit for Community Health in May 2023. This document replaces the previous Demand Management Framework for these settings. An outdated focus on triage tools to guide access to services has now been replaced with an approach more consistent with principles of the STAT model: understanding supply and demand, streamlined access, early assessment, and delivery of services in a way that considers capacity and patient flow. The STAT team at Eastern Health / La Trobe University is excited to be partnering with Department of Health during 2024 to support the implementation of the new toolkit in community health services across Victoria.