- Ochre Health
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The Ochre Health Logo represents the Barwon River system, as it makes its way though the rugged ochre earth soil, which is synonymous with rural Australia
Ochre Health is an Australian medical services organisation that specialises in providing Health care services in outer-urban, regional and remote communities. Ochre Health is an ISO:9001 accredited organisation[1] that is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Contents
History
Ochre Health was established in 2002 by Dr Hamish Meldrum, a GP Obstetrician and Dr Ross Lamplugh, a GP Anesthetist. Dr Meldrum and Dr Lamplugh were providing General Practice services and covering the on-call roster in the town of Bourke, NSW. The two doctors decided to take action over what they felt was a lack of locum support available to them and their rural colleagues, by establishing a locum recruitment agency, Ochre Recruitment. The service was highly utilised, and enabled the creation of Ochre Health, which was tasked with providing on-going management of similar rural medical facilities, principally by supporting their medical recruitment and administrational requirements.[2]
Services
Ochre Health provides a range of medical management and recruitment services, and employs approximately 100 staff across Australia. The company has also established relationships with universities to assist with medical student placements and the delivery of experimental programs into isolated communities.[3]
Ochre Health works with communities to assist address their health workforce and health outcome challenges,[4] by partnering to develop a sustainable and community dictated model of operation.[5]
Services include:
- General Practice
- Emergency Medicine
- Occupational Medicine
- Obstetrics
- Anesthetics
- Dental
- Allied Health
- Nursing
- Medical Recruitment
- Health Service Consulting
Ochre Health has a high doctor retention rate due to their supportive professional development approach toward current medical practitioners, and their ability to provide locum coverage through Ochre Recruitment, which plays a significant role in their ability to retain clinical staff in geographically remote locations.[6]
Locations
Ochre Health currently provides medical services to communities across various states and territories of Australia. These communities exhibited unmet health staffing levels[7] before the organisation commenced working with them, and now exhibit record levels of male and female medical practitioners.[8]
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
- Barham
- Boggabri
- Bourke
- Brewarrina
- Collarenebri
- Condobolin
- Grafton
- Lightning Ridge
- Nelson Bay
- Tea Gardens
- Tottenham
Northern Territory
Health Outcomes
Background
Ochre Health provides medical services to communities that have experienced long-term difficulties in attracting and retaining appropriate levels of clinical staff,[9] often due to their remoteness or their isolation from social services.[10] The company also provides services to communities that have high levels of social disadvantage, health outcomes which fall below national averages, and hospitalisation rates which fall above national averages.[11]
Primary Care
Ochre Health has been able to reduce hospitalisation rates by up to 20%[12] in communities that exhibited hospitalisation rates above national averages by increasing community access to medical pratitioners and by adopting best-practice primary care principles as a core tenant of their service delivery model. This involves the provision of chronic disease management in towns with high levels of social disadvantage and higher than average levels of diabetes and other chronic conditions.[13]
Recent Events
GP Super Clinic
On 14 July 2009, Ochre Health was awarded the management contract to operate the GP Super Clinic in Grafton, NSW by the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, on behalf of the Australian Government.[14]
References
- ^ QCSE (2010); Certified Business Directory: Certification Register
- ^ eHealth Space (2010); Ochre Health Stops Regional Paper Trail
- ^ Griffith University (2010); Rural, Remote and Indigenous Placement
- ^ The Canberra Times (2011); Great Expectations a Hurdle, Campaigner Says
- ^ ABC News (2011); People Power Builds New Medical Centre
- ^ Medical Observer (2009); Retaining Staff
- ^ Neighbourhood Watch (2011); At Last - Doctors 4 Calwell
- ^ Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (2006); How Chronic Workforce Issues Have Been Solved in Five Towns in Western NSW
- ^ WIN News (2010); Barham Medical Centre
- ^ Australian Doctor (2008); Smart Practice
- ^ Greater Western Area Health Service (2007); New Doctor Services At Coonamble And Lightning Ridge
- ^ The Age (2009); PM, States to Talk Health Reform at COAG
- ^ Rural Workforce Agency Victoria (2009); Brewarrina: A Case Study
- ^ Department of Health & Ageing (2009); Ochre Health to Run $5-million GP Super Clinic for Grafton
External links
Categories:- Healthcare in Australia
- Health care companies
- Privately held companies of Australia
- Companies based in Sydney
- Public services
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