To the Editor: The authors of the recent supplement on clinical process redesign have shown that improvement can occur in the efficiency and quality of hospital care.1 They acknowledged that this process was accompanied by an investment in external consultants and a boost to the system of 1800 beds. These interventions were necessary, and have been successful in the short term. However, these measures alone may not be sustainable for hospitals in the long term with the projected needs for the health care of an ageing population.2
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- 1 Notre Dame University School of Medicine, Sydney, NSW.
- 2 Campbelltown Hospital, Sydney, NSW.
- 1. Health services under siege: the case for clinical process redesign. Med J Aust 2008; 188 (6 Suppl): S1-S40. <MJA full text>
- 2. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Disability, ageing and carers. Canberra: ABS, 1998. (ABS Cat. No. 4430.0.)
- 3. Health services under siege: the case for clinical process redesign. Appendix: Impact of redesign on emergency and elective access in 24 New South Wales hospitals from the financial years 2004–05 to 2006–07. Med J Aust 2008; 188 (6 Suppl): S36-S37. <eMJA full text>
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- 6. O’Connell TJ, Ben-Tovim DI, McCaughan BC, et al. Health services under siege: the case for clinical process redesign. Med J Aust 2008; 188 (6 Suppl): S9-S13. <MJA full text>