Attention: Medical and Health Professionals

A new and exciting partnership has recently been established between St Basil’s NSW/ACT and a mobile Nurse Practitioner led practice that aims to improve the clinical care of people living in aged care facilities, Geripractix.

The Geripractix Nurse Practitioners (NPs) provide rapid on site clinical support to St Basil’s residents and nurses and have an extensive scope of practice that enables them to assist in the management of wounds, disease monitoring, medications, pain, death/dying residents, pathology ordering and review, acute/chronic deterioration, dementia care and much more. They are an incredibly valuable source of clinical support and we look forward to working with them.

The NPs will be a regular presence in the St Basil’s facilities and we are certain many of you may have already met. This model was trialed at St Basil’s Randwick during their Sanction period and it was an integral part of the recent review by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission that had us meet 42 of 42 Aged Care Standards.

Nurse Practitioners are expert advanced practice nurses and offer a great deal of capability in aged care as well as the wider health sector. Each St Basil’s facility will now have access to a regular Nurse Practitioner for clinical input on a regular basis.

Currently, Alex Vitte will be rotating between the Randwick and Kensington St Basil’s homes. Brian Tate will mainly be working across Kensington, Randwick and Lakemba. Another NP will be joining the Kogarah and Miranda homes soon and will operate at both sites.

The NPs will reach out to General Practitioners, to introduce themselves and will work alongside them to optimise patient care. The manner in which communication is delivered between the NP and GP can be arranged between the two clinicians. This can be done through the LeeCare notes only, email, Argus the telecommunication service, phone call or text. We understand that individual practitioners have individual preferences with regards to communication, and encourage this to be tailored to the needs of each clinician.

We look forward to seeing the collaboration between NPs and GPs flourish as we implement this model of care into our facilities, and work towards giving our residents the best clinical care possible.

Please contact the appropriate facility manager for further inquiries regarding this model of care.

Yours sincerely,