Co-Design of the UnitingCare Queensland Virtual Hospital

In September 2022 UnitingCare Queensland engaged Wesley Research Institute to support the design of their new Virtual Hospital. Following a series of interviews as part of the Context Assessment Study a series of co-design workshops were held.

1. Three workshops between July and September 2023 – one face-to-face and two online.
2. 36 attendees across the three workshops, including:
   1. Patients and family carers
   2. Staff of UnitingCare Queensland
   3. Staff of The Wesley Hospital, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, St Stephen’s Hospital, and Buderim Private Hospital
   4. Staff of BlueCare Community and BlueCare Residential Facilities
   5. General Practitioners
   6. Queensland Health stakeholders.

A summary of the context assessment results was presented to attendees at the beginning of each workshop, and participants had the opportunity to provide additional feedback. They were then asked to critique a draft ten-year vision and set of principles for the new Virtual Hospital which had been developed based on the context assessment results. Following this, participants identified steps that needed to be taken to reach the draft vision within ten years.
This research has directly informed the development of the UnitingCare Virtual Hospital and Wesley Research Institute will continue to collaborate with UnitingCare Queensland on the ongoing design and implementation of the new hospital.

A detailed report with recommendations for design and implementation of the UnitingCare Virtual Hospital has been developed for UnitingCare Queensland. Wesley Research Institute will conduct a Virtual Hospital Evaluation.