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Hospital in the Home Short Iron Infusion

This Hospital in the Home (HITH) program offers only short iron infusions for patients with iron deficiency anaemia.

About 

Monash Health Adult Hospital in the Home (HITH) provides a limited iron infusion service for:

  • Clients within Monash Health primary catchment
  • Patients over the age of 18 years
  • Meeting these criteria :
    • have iron deficiency anaemia where oral treatment is contraindicated, or enteric absorption is impaired with a
      • Ferritin less than 30 microgram/L OR
      • Ferritin less than 200 microgram/L AND transferrin saturation less than 20% for patients with heart failure or chronic kidney disease AND
      • Hb less than 130g/L for men and less than 120g/L for women
      • Haemoglobin and ferritin levels must have been done within the last 3 months.
    • Pregnant women:
      • Ferritin less than 30 microgram/L AND
      • Meet Monash Health criteria for an iron infusion in pregnancy
        • No haemoglobin response after trial of oral iron (Please refer to Iron Deficiency Anaemia in Pregnancy for Monash Health)

Alternative Service

  • For patients requiring long iron infusions (e.g. iron polymaltose)
  • Patients not meeting criteria above can be referred to community providers  (in circumstances where your patient cannot access community iron infusion such as financial constraints, please specify this on your referral).
  • Patients under 18 years of age should be referred to the Paediatric Haematology team
  • HITH do not investigate the cause of the iron deficiency and should be referred to the appropriate speciality

Cost 

No charge for Medicare-eligible patients. 

External referral process 

All GP referrals must be made via HealthLink. 

Internal referral process 

  • the internal referral process is via SMR.
  • referrals will only be accepted from medical professionals including GPs. 
  • options:
    • Urgent < 4 weeks
    • Routine > 4 weeks

When 

Iron infusions are completed onsite at one of the Adult HITH clinics. Appointments are generally between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. seven days a week. 

 Where 

  • Casey Hospital Berwick 
  • Dandenong Hospital 
  • Monash Medical Centre Clayton 
  • Moorabbin HospitalÂ