SA Community Care for patients
SA Community Care provides care in your home, after returning home from hospital or to help you avoid a hospital stay when safe and appropriate.
The SA Community Care Patient fact sheet (PDF 83KB) provides information about what happens when you are referred, next steps and what to expect about receiving care at home.
The program offers nursing care, personal care (such as shower support), allied health services (such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy) and end of life care services.
SA Community Care is available to provide a range of services including wound care, medication administration, support with your activities of daily living, end of life care, paediatric nursing, continence management and more.
All services are provided in the comfort of your own home, including a residential aged care facility.
SA Community Care is an SA Health program and is available at no cost to eligible public patients.
The program is available for patients who live in the Adelaide metropolitan area and is delivered in your own home, including residential aged care facilities.
A referral from a healthcare professional is required to access SA Community Care.
Please speak with your GP or other healthcare provider for more information. Your GP, medical specialist, nurse, allied health practitioner, a Priority Care Centre clinician, a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic clinician, an SA Ambulance Service paramedic, SA Virtual Care Service clinician or an emergency department or public hospital may refer you to the service.
Your doctor or another healthcare professional will refer you to SA Community Care through the Metropolitan Referral Unit (MRU), which manages all referrals into the program.
Your healthcare professional will provide your contact details, information about your condition and medical history as well as anything else the MRU needs to know. The clinicians at the MRU will assess your eligibility for the service, including your clinical care needs and whether your home is a suitable environment for you to receive care.
If you are not eligible for SA Community Care, the MRU will discuss alternative programs or services with your referring clinician to help you receive the care you need.
If you are eligible for SA Community Care the MRU clinicians will arrange for a service provider to come and visit you in your home.
SA Community Care is an SA Health program. The program has three service providers:
- Calvary Community Care
- RDNS Silverchain
- Amplar Home Health.
These service providers work closely with the SA Health Metropolitan Referral Unit and your medical and nursing team to ensure we deliver responsive and safe clinical care.
When you are admitted to the SA Community Care program you will be set up with one of the service providers listed above and they will manage all of your home visits. The service providers will directly communicate with you to arrange your care. It is important that we have up to date contact details for you, your carer and family members so that we can keep in touch with you while you are on the program.
The clinical team at the Metropolitan Referral Unit works closely with the SA Community Care service providers to ensure you receive quality care through the program.
As an SA Community Care patient, you will be visited at home as often as your condition requires. Home visits will be arranged by our in-home service providers directly with you, as requested by your referring clinician. In your initial referral, we receive a handover of the important clinical information needed to assist us in implementing your community care plan. We will discuss your care plan with you and provide services in your home to meet your care needs.
At discharge we will hand the completion of your care over to the person that referred you and to any ongoing service providers who may be continuing any long-term care that you need.
As we are a home visit service, we are aware that others may be involved in your care and we appreciate being connected with them as well so that we can work together with your loved ones and/or carer to assist in your treatment and recovery. Communication is a valuable part of the program, please discuss with your nurse or the Metropolitan Referral Unit if you or your carer need additional assistance or information about your care plan.
SA Community Care also provides paediatric services and works in close collaboration with the patient’s family.
SA Community Care can help you to manage your Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICC line) at home. You may be ready to leave hospital and still require long term IV therapy, for example for IV antibiotics or chemotherapy.
Living at home with a PICC means that you will need to change how you do some things to make sure your PICC stays safe. Your SA Community Care nurse can help you if you have any questions about living with a PICC.
Your community service provider will provide contact details, please discuss initial questions or concerns with them.
If you have any additional questions, concerns or want to provide feedback, contact the MRU by phone on 1300 110 600 or email health.mru@sa.gov.au. The MRU operates 7 days a week, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000).