Thursday 20 November 2025 | 10:25-12:25 

Format: Presentation

Stream: Safety

Part One: Time is Brain: Enhancing Stroke Care in Victoria Through a Collaborative Model

Time is brain – and in Victoria, we’re acting fast. This session showcases the state’s first collaborative to improve timeliness to hyperacute stroke care, aligned with the 2030 National Stroke Targets. Safer Care Victoria and IHI have brought together 17 metro and regional health services, Ambulance Victoria, consumers, and clinical experts to drive system-wide change. Discover how this unique partnership is delivering faster, safer stroke care through a collaborative model, real-time data dashboards, and innovative ambulance integration. Join us to explore early results, practical tools, and lessons learned in improving stroke care across diverse settings. Don’t miss this opportunity to act faster, together.

Lucy Wong Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Australia
Melissa McIlvain Safer Care Victoria; Australia

Part Two: Reframing Frailty in the Emergency Department (REFRAME): A Quality Improvement Project

Frailty in Emergency Medicine: The Why and How of Focusing on At-Risk Patients Session description Background:Frailty is increasingly prevalent among older adults, who present to emergency departments (EDs) with complex healthcare needs. Emergency clinicians work in an environment characterized by constant flow, unpredictability, and the competing demands of acute care. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), a validated tool, enables rapid identification of at-risk patients and supports early intervention. This presentation explores the integration of the CFS into the ED workflow at Galway University Hospital, a Level 4 academic teaching department providing care for both adult and pediatric patients. With an upsurge in geriatric attendances, the department implemented a frailty pathway to enable consistent and early identification of frailty in older adults. Through collaboration with the Frailty-At-The-Front-Door service, this initiative addressed the growing need for comprehensive care for vulnerable patients.Delegates will gain insights into introducing similar pathways, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and addressing the increasing demand for geriatric-focused emergency care. This project demonstrates how embedding frailty services improves patient outcomes, streamlines care, and highlights the importance of geriatric medicine as a vital subspecialty in emergency care.

Stephen Sheridan St James’s Hospital; Ireland

Part Three: Advanced Allied Health Practitioners Can Help Solve the Problem of Long Waiting Lists To See Specialists. A Knowledge Translation Project

Orthopaedic elective surgery clinics have long unmonitored wait times. Advanced physiotherapists have the skills needed to filter those patients in most urgent need of surgical consultation. We aimed to improve the efficiency and patient outcomes of these clinics. A project was conducted using a knowledge translation framework from 2022 to 2024 to investigate the barriers and implement best practice care for patients with knee osteoarthritis referred to a surgical clinic. Interviews with stakeholders informed barriers and enablers to applying best practice models of care, and service statistics over three years were analysed to inform decisions and conduct economic analysis. We found that anchoring in the clinical care standard, increasing screening by advanced practice physiotherapists and facilitating access to community-based nonsurgical interventions significantly reduced waiting times to see a surgeon and directed patients to appropriate care pathways.

Danealle Gilfillan Canberra Health Service; Australia
Jennie Scarvell University of Canberra; Australia

Part Four: Skill mix and PDSA cycle improves access to pediatric ambulatory surgery: the case study of AGM anesthesia clinic, Montreal; Canada

Developing a clinical facility to ensure equitable access to care is consistently challenging, especially within our modern healthcare systems. This session will explore a specific case study of an anesthesia clinic in Canada (Clinique d’anesthésie AGM). This privately owned facility with a public mandate (public single-payer system) maximizes the use of skill mix analysis and integrated PDSA cycles to transition from a small pediatric anesthesia clinic designed for dental surgery into the largest pediatric ambulatory surgery centre in Canada.

Marie-Andree Girard Clinique d’anesthesie AGM; Canada