HealthOne
Katie Foy, Manager of Molong HealthOne.
Molong HealthOne –a team approach to community health.
The 2009 opening of Molong HealthOne, a multidisciplinary hub for primary health care services within Molong and the surrounding villages of Manildra, Cudal, Yeoval, Cargo and Cumnock, marked the beginning of a new era in regional health care in Cabonne.
Services provided at Molong HealthOne include enhanced GP services with additional allied health practice nurses, primary care nursing services, community and acute home based care, pathology collection service, a child and family health service, weekly exercise programs and a healthy lifestyle program. Local and visiting allied health services include dietetics, speech pathology, occupational therapy, palliative care, psychology, physiotherapy, counselling, women’s health and optometry.
Molong is located approximately 40 kms north west of Orange in Central Western NSW. The HealthOne Molong catchment area includes the villages of Molong, Manildra, Cudal, Yeoval, Cargo and Cumnock, with a combined population of approximately 4,300 people.
Katie Foy is the Manager of Molong HealthOne. She is a dynamic and passionate health professional and the mother of three young children. She loves working in regional NSW.
“I am a registered nurse who trained at Sydney Uni and moved to Dubbo at the end of my degree, following the country boy I met in the city,” Katie explains. “I did a 12 month new graduate position at Dubbo Base Hospital, where I stayed on working in emergency until 2008. I then moved to Molong where I worked as a clinical Nurse Specialist in emergency at Molong Hospital for three years before taking the position at HealthOne as Manager.”
Katie believes the shared integration meetings between community nurses, specialists, administration and general practitioners have been key to the success of the Molong HealthOne model.
“Molong HealthOne has had a dramatic improvement on the streamlining of health services,” she says. “Through improved working relationships and understanding of each other’s role in service delivery we have improved the patient journey through our health system.”
One of the GPs working with Katie and the team at Molong HealthOne is Dr Robin Williams, who was part of the original working party formed in 2007 to develop the centre. Dr Williams has worked in regional NSW for 17 years and sits on a number of rural health boards. He is Chair of the Western NSW Local Health District Board a member of the NSW Health Ministerial Advisory Committee on Rural Health. Dr Williams describes the Molong HealthOne model as “patient centric”.
“Molong HealthOne is an integrated health care model which fosters a team approach across general practice, community health and external providers,” Dr William explains. “It provides a collocated entity which aims to provide a seamless journey for patients through a variety of health professionals in order to deliver the highest possible care.”
“It enables you to have great job satisfaction at the end of the day.”
Dr Williams says working in regional health gives him the opportunity to provide true “cradle to the grave” care. “There is excellent local support from specialists and diagnostic services,” he says. “And the professional satisfaction in providing care to a community is priceless.”
For Katie Foy, living and working in a regional town like Molong means witnessing first-hand the effect her work has within the community. In Molong, she feels she is able to get that crucial work/life balance right.
“So often in health, as with other professions, working in a large centre, you rarely find out how the client’s journey ended or the final outcome. In a smaller setting you will often have the opportunity to catch up with clients and see and hear from them the positive end results of the hard work our team put in to support them and the positive effects of that journey,” she says. “It enables you to have great job satisfaction at the end of a day. For me I am able to juggle full time work, three young kids and at the end of the day go home and be part of the community as well.”
