Sub-Acute Care Unit

The Townsville University Hospital Sub-Acute Care Unit (SACU) provides restorative and rehabilitation services to the community following a medical or surgical issue. The facility was designed to get patients back into their own homes by helping them re-gain independence in daily living though specially designed programs and activities within the unit.

As a long-stay unit, SACU has community areas for patients and their families. Patients are expected to dress in the day time and wear appropriate footwear for undertaking their therapy programs.

Geriatrics Evaluation and Management (GEM) unit
To older patients, functional disability is often more critical than their medical problems. The functional decline and deconditioning of a patient may result in a Comprehensive Geriatrics Assessment (CGA), with a multidisciplinary approach. Older patients will be transferred from acute wards to the GEM unit for reconditioning when their medical conditions are stable. Patients are assessed and managed each weekday by a multidisciplinary team. Medical ward rounds are held regularly and family meetings are frequently part of the discharge planning. The GEM unit works closely with the Transition Care Program to ensure the successful discharge of a patient, with ongoing goals of functional improvement in the community.

Inpatient rehabilitation
Inpatient rehabilitation is also offered at SACU. This custom-built 43-bed facility aims to provide optimal post-acute rehabilitative care and restorative services for persons over the age of 18. The aim of the unit is to promote independence in activities of daily living that will assist patients to regaining functional capacity and therefore reduce functional decline as a result of illness or injury. 

Day rehabilitation
Day rehabilitation involves clinicians from across a number of specialties who work with the patient to create goal-directed rehabilitation. Rehabilitation programs are designed to maximise functional independence which can be conducted in a group environment or through individual appointments. Day rehabilitation is provided at the Sub-Acute Care Unit.

Outpatient Rehabilitation Clinics
Outpatient rehabilitation involves several clinics that provide specialist assessment and management depending on what kind of rehabilitation you require. These clinics operate through the Sub-Acute Care Unit.

OncoGeriatrics Assessment Clinic

Working collaboratively with the oncology team, the OncoGeriatric assessment clinic is focused on early identification and management of frailty and geriatric syndromes in older adults with newly diagnosed cancer. A comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) will be performed by a specialist geriatrician and individualised recommendations will be provided.

The OncoGeriatrics department also has access to Telehealth. Telehealth allows the team to connect to all rural facilities and provide the following services: frailty, dementia diagnosis, assistance with capacity and placement decisions, dementia-related behavioural problems and assistance with the formal diagnosis of dementia syndromes. A comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) can be performed by a specialist geriatrician supported by on-site community nurses at each rural facility. Each Telehealth consultation can be performed in the patient home, saving travel for many frail patients.

Other clinics include:

General rehabilitation
Spasticity
Amputee and prosthetics
Pedorthotist (Bootmaker)
Spinal medicine
Referral process
Referral must be addressed to the Rehabilitation Consultant and can be in a letter format or through HealthPathways. Email is the preferred delivery method.

On receipt of the referral an appointment or review of the patient will be completed at the earliest convenience.