The Queensland Ambulance Service Clinical Hub – Improving Pathways to Care

In the current environment of escalating demand for ambulance services, the Queensland Ambulance Service has identified a more agile approach to providing care to the community. Conceptualised as a coordination adjunct, the clinical hub provides an adaptive model of service that ensures a timely, appropriate, and patient-centric ambulance response occurs.

In short, the hub provides a secondary triage to a select cohort of patients and determines the most appropriate healthcare pathway that is proportionate to the acuity of the individual. Staffed by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of senior paramedics, mental health clinicians and medical officers, the Clinical Hub coordinates the entry of the patient into the broader healthcare system after a Triple Zero (000) call is received.

The Clinical Hub has redesigned the provision of ambulance services in Queensland and raises the question: is the future of paramedicine behind the computer screen, rather than the windscreen?