Imagine, as a health care professional, an injured worker has been referred to you, but you do not have the up-to-date access or knowledge of clinical services that would most benefit your patient. How can you identify the best evidence-based clinical care to aide recovery?
WorkSafe Victoria identified a need to improve access by Treating Health Practitioners (THPs) to their Clinical Panel support, thereby improving injured worker experiences and recovery outcomes.
Prior to the Hotline Pilot, THPs had no way of making direct contact to access the clinical expertise at WorkSafe. It should be noted that for the purposes of the pilot, THPs included general practitioners, psychologists and physiotherapists.
An 8-month Clinical Hotline Pilot was designed to support providers in their treatment of injured workers in a more timely and efficient manner, and as a tool to provide a better understanding of where broader education may be beneficial. ISCRR carried out the evaluation of this pilot.
ISCRR adopts a guided approach to our evaluations and was involved in the Hotline Pilot from its inception, through the facilitation of Program Logic workshops, and throughout its implementation as part of the Hotline Pilot working group.
The evaluation objectives were:
The participants were highly satisfied with the Hotline and wanted this initiative to continue.
The participants also reported that these impacts would likely result in improved injured worker treatment and outcomes.
ISCRR’s guided approach to the Hotline evaluation resulted in improvements to the Hotline during the pilot duration. An email query option was implemented in December 2021 as a complementary approach to the Hotline.
The evaluation of the Hotline demonstrated that it is a valuable and effective service, with benefits reported for THPs, injured workers and WorkSafe.
The research report is available to download from the ISCRR Clearinghouse.