Emergency Department presentations were reviewed to quantify and describe the cohort
of complex care patients who had needs relating to mental health, drug and alcohol
issues, acute and chronic medical conditions, poverty, homelessness and social isolation.

It was found that between ten and fifteen percent of patients fitted within these descriptors.
This exceptionally vulnerable group presented unique challenges as no existing model
of care, group of specialists or even physical space within the hospital was suitable.

PANDA was devised and built as a unique model of cooperative care in a dedicated
space to provide holistic, empathic care.

In 2017, the Dysplasia and Anal Cancer Services (DACS) was the proud recipient of the SVHA “Innovation and Excellence Award”. Over the last 3 years, the remarkable dedication of the DACS team, together with generous philanthropic support, has enabled us to introduce seven new studies, investigating improved screening and treatment.

These, together with the recent publication of a seminal paper from the United States, means that we have now entered a new era where the prevention of anal cancer is technically possible for all People Living With HIV.

St Vincent's Health Network Sydney developed a Covid Care in the Community Service in 2020 in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. The main objective for this service was to support patients who were infected with COVID 19 to remain at home thus reducing pressure on the acute hospital system.

Their first patient was admitted in April 2020 and between April 2020 and March 2022 a total of 2067patients were admitted to this service. With low rates of Emergency Department presentations and incidents, virtual care is a safe and effective way of care delivery in the home environment.

Sonia leads delivery of positive and culturally safe experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and staff at St Vincent's.

Sonia is a key leader in a range of projects that support our staff and First Nations patients including implementation of the "Stay'n Deadly - Stay'n In" project, the how to ‘have a yarn’ Yarnin Cards, 48-hour follow up calls in ED, and the project 'Reducing Readmission Rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People'.

 Sonia has also been instrumental in promotion of St Vincent's as a first choice place of employment for Aboriginal people and mentoring of Aboriginal nursing cadets.

As a valuable member of the Patient Safety & Quality team, Emma lives and breathes person centred care and is always willing to step up and assist the organisation to ensure patient safety has a voice.

Emma has made an outstanding contribution to SVHNS management of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has worked in the "Emergency Operation Centre" providing a Safety & Quality lens to the daily operations and vaccination clinics, all while maintaining her role in the Patient Safety and Quality Unit. 

 Emma provides leadership to the Safety & Quality agenda in all forums, this is done in a kind and caring manner.

Our Emergency frontliners are a group of highly dedicated professionals that are the first touchpoint for hundreds of patients each day. They display incredible resilience, showing up each day to provide best patient care. In time critical situations, their ability to respond and adapt during the pandemic has been nothing less than extraordinary.

With strong leadership, they continued to provide care in an environment of high pressure and high stakes. Against all odds, making life and death decisions and managing some of the most vulnerable and complex patients, St Vincent's Emergency Department never lost sight of the mission and values of SVHS.

The St Vincent's Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) is the centralised control centre for incident management and was stood up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attracting health managers and clinicians across the organisation the team worked within the internal and external response teams. Bringing diverse skills and talent, individuals developed expertise in incident management and built capability across the organisation.

This team led rapid change management through coordination of key information, communication and operational decisions regarding all aspects of the response.

The ethos of patient and staff safety and wellbeing at all points along the journey was highlighted.

The in-reach mobile rehabilitation team (MRT) at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney (SVHS) first started in 2011 and has continued to evolve. This study demonstrates that for selected patients with high rehabilitation needs, receiving MRT can double the rate of discharge home after an acute hospital admission (47% vs 21%, p=0.007).

The screening process is targeted at capturing the most vulnerable group who need rehabilitation services, in alignment with the Missions and Values.

This study demonstrates that MRT is able to deliver patient centred rehabilitation interventions to this group and increases their chance of successful discharge home from acute care.