Social Work at Hollywood Private Hospital

1. Social Work at Hollywood Private Hospital Hollywood Private Hospital August 2008

2. Social Work Team There are officially 6 of us, however we are fortunate to have an extended team with social work service at The Hollywood Clinic and a team member based at Attadale Hospital – so really there are 8 (sometimes 9 or 10) of us.

3. Specialties Cardiology Gastroenterology General Medicine Oncology/Haematology Palliative Care Unit Rehabilitation Surgical/Orthopaedics

4. Social Work Within these specialty fields we all have our own expertise. Our caseloads are reviewed yearly as a way to ensure each member of the team continues to be challenged and develops new skills along the way.

5. Hollywood Private Hospital Historically HPH has been a Veteran Hospital. Our patients were all veterans and our services were designed to meet Veteran needs. Over time this has slowly changed. This change started in 1994 when Ramsay Health Care purchased Hollywood Repatriation Hospital and changed its name to Hollywood Private Hospital. For many years this had very little impact on our business as the Veterans continued to come to Hollywood and as staff we continued to provide great service to them. HPH continued to work under contract from The Dept. of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to provide the only private hospital experience for Veterans. In July 2006 Federal Government legislation changed to allow Veterans to attend any Public or Private Hospital in WA – whilst still being covered by DVA. This has over the past 12 months impacted our patient population significantly. In the past our admissions have been 80% Veterans to 20% Private patients. Financial year 2007-2008 we averaged a 50:50 ratio. This has significant implications for our social work service.

6. What is unique about HPH Social Work We work with Private, Veteran and Public patients We complete ACCR’s for in-patients, even though we are a Private Hospital We have our own CAP facility on-site Renovation plans – Rehab and Oncology

7. Private, Veteran & Public patients Our Palliative Care Unit has always admitted a small number of public patients HPH now admits overflow from SCGH, RPH, and FH This has provided a challenge for a team of social workers who are experts in providing a social work service to Veterans

8. ACAT We have a unique relationship with SCGH ACAT that allows our patients to have their ACCR’s approved by a delegate from the SCGH ACAT team. This is an uncommon arrangement and we are very grateful to SCGH ACAT for their support in this process.

9. Gratwick Ward - CAP Gratwick ward is our version of a CAP facility. Gratwick ward is an open-plan 4 bedded ward. Transition from medical ward Non-Acute fees Vets/Private/Public

10. Into the future for HPH and Social Work - Redevelopment This will create greater capacity for the specialties of Rehabilitation, Surgery, Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care. This provides a unique opportunity for our social workers to specialise in a field.

20. Summary Overall it is a very exciting time to be working at HPH. The main reason for sharing all of this with you could really be summed up in one sentence – ‘We don’t just work with veterans anymore’ So as a social worker this has allowed us great scope for professional development and professional growth.