Regal your Partner in the Community

There’s No Place Like Home

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned”

Maya Angelou

Oh, the Wizard of Oz. A cinematic masterpiece that stimulated the senses, evoked wonder and celebrated the potency of inner strength & self-belief. A film that has been lovingly passed down and remains one of life’s treasures.  

Our world is evolving – or devolving, depending on your perspective - at an unprecedented rate. Yet one simple truth (as brought to life on the Yellow Brick Road) endures. 77 years ago…I know, I know, impossible to believe… a lost little girl from Kansas, with pigtails and ruby slippers, tapped her feet together three times and cried, “There’s no place like home.” …And she was right.  

We can never underestimate the healing power of home, community, familiarity and belonging. But when those commanding forces are no longer enough to ensure health and vitality, we have choices. And leaving our home, our life, our sanctuary is by no means the only one. For most, leaving our own home is the choice of last resort. For most, it’s the very worst case scenario. Gratefully, at Regal such a choice, in most cases, need not be an option.

Understanding the critical partnership between a clinically focused home health and supportive care services is the key to people being successful in living at home independently and with a good quality of life.

For more than half a century, Regals' survival (thrival) has required us to be innovative, adaptive, agile and market-savvy.  But the one timeless constant is that humanity, compassion, dignity and clinical consistency remains the heartbeat of all that we do and all that we champion.

Our Hospital system needs to be available for those who really need it. Emergency Departments are overflowing with older Australians who are anxious, malnourished and victims of a system that is agonisingly complex to navigate as a result of many different masters. People need to know that they are in safe hands, competently treated, valued as individuals and recipients of the best possible treatment and care.  All Australians deserve a continuum of care that will preserve joy and meaning in their lives.

So what’s the Regal difference?

Regal delivers services in the home that have in the past been the exclusive domain of hospitals. Regal’s Nurses (“RNs”) cover 30 virtual wards across greater Metropolitan Sydney.  Working closely with General Practitioners and smart technology, Regal Nurses administer Home Intravenous Therapy, Complex Wound Management, implement multidisciplinary home Rehabilitation / Restorative programs, support people post surgery or support people with stomas and/or continence issues among other clinical and personal care services…. and that’s just by 8:30 am. There are increasing demands to support and advocate for older parents of busy professionals to coordinate care and help them to stay safely at home. Regal is agile in providing tailored services for these families and can partner in to support their elders or at times when they need extra care after a hospital stay.

Its not just clinical care, at Regal we deliver whole, cooperative, human care. Our elders also need other supports such as help in coordinating appointments, updating their networks on their progress and nourishing meals, expert cleaning, gardening, social engagement, purpose and help in getting to appointments. We are here to do it all giving loved ones peace of mind as well!

Regal HQ is a domain of wholehearted health and care professionals whose skill base ranges from clinicians to life enhancing enablers dedicated to humanity for humanity in being of service to our community. When you walk into our domain, you are blinded by the heartlights beaming from a sense of purpose and an ability to enhance others lives, simply by being Regal.

We have highly qualified clinical experts and advisers that through clinical surveillance and triage actively anticipate and manage critical health issues and preventative strategies including signs and symptoms of deterioration, falls and pressure injuries etc,. thus keeping people safely at home.  

Having established longstanding, trusted relationships with thousands of GPs, our clients are assured that if a Regal Nurse escalates their management for a GP review, the GP will be immediately responsive to their clinical assessment and expertise. It is the shared vision of these unique collaborative partnerships (including doctors, allied health professionals and hospitals) that sets Regal apart. These partnerships see Regal supporting colleagues across all sectors in meeting the immediate needs of people, families and communities.…and ultimately saves lives. 

We know standards are important to our community and in 1994, having modeled our organisation as a large community-based teaching hospital, Regal became the first private community nursing service nationally to be accredited by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, the national industry standard for Hospitals across the country.  We are affiliated with The University of Sydney Susan Wakil School of Nursing to maintain our links to education and clinical leadership and actively participate in professional advocacy in delivering value based healthcare in the home. Regal is delivering hospital substitution services to enable patients to be discharged earlier and receive in-home care for complex wound management, intravenous therapy, chronic disease management and rehabilitation post-surgery. A staggering 82 per cent of our patients at risk of hospitalisation avoid hospital due to our appropriate and timely clinical intervention and team approach to care.  

‘Trusted care plays a pivotal role in healing’ says Anna M Shepherd our co-founder, who collaborates with industry leaders such as Dr Fiona Kerr who has demonstrated the impact of eye gaze and touch in healing. This powerful healing is evidenced in our outcomes and informs the delivery of tailored, person-centred, coordinated care at home. A vast reduction in unplanned hospital admissions are achieved as a result of our innovative and agile business model. 

Regal truly sees the benefits for home health and care as follows:  

? enables reduced length of hospital stay; 

? reduced need for additional acute beds; 

? decreased risk of hospital acquired infection, falls and pressure injuries; 

? improved nutrition and hydration; 

? increased comfort; 

? opportunity to transfer home for rehab after hospitalisation

? decreased depression, loneliness and social isolation; 

? increased freedom and independence; 

? increased affordability; 

? reduced stress on family and carers in attending hospital to visit loved ones and  

? greater experience for all.

At Regal we have cared for more than 35,000 people for over half a century with healing, dignity and respect using evidence based best practice. To witness the restoration of independence, confidence and wellbeing of those we care for is the greatest legacy and tribute to the visionary who began this journey –  Patricia Shepherd FACN.  It just doesn’t get more personal than that.