Inpatient

In order for a patient to be considered for admission to inpatient rehabilitation, a written referral must be made to the Rehabilitation Consultant via the Rehabilitation Registrar.  For RCH teams this  should be done through the EMR.  For external hospitals please contact the rehabilitation registrar on phone 93459300.  The referral can be completed either by junior or senior medical staff of another unit, allied health staff or senior ward nursing staff however must have the approval of the patient's Medical or Surgical Consultant.  When patients are having elective surgery for a pre-existing condition, a rehabilitation referral should be made pre-operatively via EMR to our ambulatory clinics.

 An initial assessment will then be made by Rehabilitation staff within 24 hours of receipt of referral, which may include interdisciplinary assessment, before a decision is made on accepting the patient for admission.  This assessment will include pre-morbid functional capacity, extent of functional decline, rate of recovery and current child and family goals.  The domains of functional assessment include communication, cognition, behaviour, mobility and transfers, continence, self-care, feeding and fine motor skills. A priority will be given to the referral, and if an admission to inpatient rehabilitation is required, an approximate date for admission will be given.

Ambulatory

We request that the referrals are made by a doctor.  On referral please provide information about family contact details, the child’s diagnosis and previous investigations, a team of health professionals involved (such as doctors and therapists) and the purpose of the referrals/goals of treatment.

Please call our stream leaders Melissa Hughes, Ivan Spoljaric or Tanya Harle if you have any questions on 9345300

The Fax number for referrals is 93455034. 

Chronic Fatigue Referrals: Referrals to Chronic Fatigue Program:  Prospective participants (aged 12-17) are initially assessed by a CFS doctor in the Adolescent Medicine or General Medicine clinics before referral to the CFS program. Referrals to the CFS doctors can be directed to the RCH Specialist Clinics referral system (outpatients) , telephone 9345 6180

Please see the following link for internal referrals https://www.rch.org.au/policy/policies/Referral_to_the_Victorian_Paediatric_Rehabilitation_Service/#ambulatory

Other Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Services sites

Referrals for ambulatory services outside of RCH can also be made to VPRS regional coordinators.  Please see the  VPRS statewide service website for further information on rehabilitation closer to home.

Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Services are also available at:

• Southern Metropolitan Region (Located at Monash Health)  
  
• Eastern Metropolitan Region (Located at Eastern Health)  
  
• Loddon Mallee Region (Located at Bendigo Health)  
  
• Barwon South Western Region (Located at Barwon Health)  
  
• Grampians Region (Located at Grampians Health Services)  
  
• Hume Region (Located at Goulburn Valley Health)  
  
• Gippsland Region (Located at Latrobe Regional Hospital)