Evaluation of GP–Hospital Integration Demonstration Site project: Launceston (Staff)

Project commencement date:

Project completion date:

Contacts: Ms Shandell Elmer

The Launceston General Hospital (LGH), in partnership with the Division of General Practice, Northern Tasmania (GP North) and the UDRH, was funded by the Federal Government Department of Health and Ageing and the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services to implement and evaluate a health care integration project. The outcomes of this project were:

• The establishment of a Health Integration Leaders Group whose membership, purpose and function is underpinned by a memorandum of understanding and strategic plan;
• The evaluation and augmentation of existing integration activities currently operating between the LGH and the community and primary care sectors, consistent with models of best practice;
• The development of a sustainable model for future health care integration;
• The initiation of systems and culture change within health care organisations.

The project was conducted over a two-year period between December 2002 and December 2004 and resulted in two conference presentations and one journal article:

Kilpatrick, SI, Elmer, SL, 2005, ‘Capacity building for integrated health care at the local level’, Making Primary Health Care Work: Challenges for the Education and Practice of the Health Workforce, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam pg. 211

Elmer, SL, Kilpatrick, SI, 2005, ‘Capacity building for integrated health care at the local level’, Capacity Building for Integrated Health Care at the Local Level, Adelaide

Elmer, SL & Kilpatrick, SI, in press, 'Using project evaluation to build capacity for integrated health care at the local level', Journal of Integrated Care

Members: Shandell Elmer, Beth Mulligan