The Hospital-in-the-Home program (known as Wallaby Ward) allows your child to be cared for at home by The Royal children’s Hospital (RCH) medical, nursing and allied health staff. By transferring to Wallaby, your child can complete their inpatient treatment at home.
Wallaby is a 61 bed ward, in which medically stable children requiring daily/twice daily acute care interventions can complete their admission at home. Whilst at home, children are visited and cared for by a team of qualified RCH nurses, medical and allied health staff who communicate regularly with the child's primary treating medical unit.
The aim for the Wallaby ward is to reduce the anxiety for the child and family by treating them in their own environment where there is less disruption to daily routine.
Examples of care provided by the Wallaby team are (with a fuller list with guidelines on the Clinical Service and Resources page):
- intravenous antibiotics
- chemotherapy
- wound dressings and eczema care
- diabetes care and education
- acute home oxygen
- sleep and overnight oximetry studies
- allied health services (physiotherapy, nutrition, speech pathology, occupational therapy)
Wallaby provides a Victoria-wide service. Staff can provide care for children within a 60 km radius of Melbourne (depending on availability and scope). Children outside our catchment may have their care outsourced to regional providers but are still regarded as a Wallaby Ward inpatient. The Wallaby team will keep in regular contact with the regional service providers and ensure the treating RCH medical unit are updated about the child's care.
We pride ourselves in being one of Victoria's leading hospital-in-the-home programs and strive to utilise new technologies and ideas to improve our delivery of care. Children and their families may also be involved in telehealth sessions.
If you would like more information about the Wallaby Ward, please call 9345 5695 (during office hours).
For all referrals, please refer via EPIC or call our Intake team on 9345 4770
Wallaby Ward survey
We value feedback from patients and parents to continually improve how we deliver great patient care for children at home. The results help us to strengthening our relationships with families and providing greater quality of care.
Wallaby Ward awards
Victorian Public Healthcare Awards
Winner
- 2016 Improving healthcare through clinical research by an individual early in their career. A/Prof Penelope Bryant - Measuring the impact of Hospital-in-the-Home
This award recognises our Medical Lead Penelope's role as a pioneer in paediatric HITH research. This research has enabled improved care at home, especially in the way we deliver antibiotics, and provided evidence to support children with many more conditions to be managed at home. Penelope's work has provided assurance to clinicians and families that hospital-level care at home is safe, effective and the best place to be. It has underpinned Wallaby's enormous growth from 16 beds to 61 beds over the last decade. - 2023 Care closer to home. Paediatric adenotonsillectomy transfer to Hospital-in-the-Home: a new model of care
This groundbreaking model developed by our HITH consultant Dr Kate Simpson in collaboration with the RCH ENT surgeons successfully moved post-surgery care for tonsillectomy patients into their homes, reducing readmissions, improving family satisfaction, and making care safer, more efficient, and family-centred.
Finalist
- 2016 Excellence in providing alternative care paths. Why not Wallaby? A Great Care Initiative
Dr Nicholas Collins Hospital-in-the-Home Society Fellowship
Winner
- 2016 Dr Laila Ibrahim (PhD student): A randomised controlled trial to compare home versus hospital for treatment of moderate/severe cellulitis
- 2019 A/Prof Penelope Bryant (Medical Lead): Determining the meaning and measure of HITH for impact
- 2021 Dr Joanna Lawrence (HITH consultant): Does hospital-level management of bronchiolitis need to occur in the hospital?
Hospital-in-the-Home Society Australasia Annual Scientific Meeting
Best poster winner
- 2014 Successful Intervention to Promote the Use of Hospital-In-The-Home for Patients Referred Directly from the Emergency Department
- 2024 Validation of Patient Experience Measures in HITH Programs: Phases 1 & 2
- 2025 Stabilising Notoriously Unstable Antibiotics for Patients with Resistant Infections for Use at Home
Best oral presentation winner
- 2025
Real-time Measures of Paediatric Hospital-in-the-Home (HITH) Service
for Comparative Benchmarking
Sleep studies
Watch how to use overnight oximetry at home with Wallaby support.
Meet Zoe!
Watch the video below to find out how Zoe's at-home physiotherapy, nursing and medical care.
Wallaby ward - home visit