The Logan Transit Care Hub team
In response to a growing community and increased demand on health services, Logan Hospital has integrated an innovative service that is improving the flow of patients through the hospital while also ensuring patients receive the high-quality care and support they need.
The hospital’s successful Transit Care Hub is a nurse-led facility, providing a comfortable space for patients waiting for discharge, transfer, surgery or outpatient appointments.
Transit Care staff also provide clinical care to help patients prepare for colonoscopies, biopsies or medical imaging, assistance with wound and surgical dressings, overnight care prior to next-day discharge, and ambulance transfers or transport home as required.
Providing this invaluable service is improving patient care while helping to free up inpatient beds for other patients needing acute hospital care.
Originally opening as a Monday to Friday day service in 2023, demand soon saw the Hub’s operations increase to nights and weekends, before becoming a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week offering in late 2025.
Having grown its capacity to 33 treatment spaces including beds, chairs and trolleys, the Hub can be reconfigured to accommodate up to 66 patients in an emergency if required.
Assistant Director of Nursing for the Patient Flow Program Fiona Butler played a key role in designing Logan Hospital’s Transit Care Hub, seeking to meet increasing community need.
“We knew Logan was growing rapidly and that preserving inpatient beds would become increasingly important,” she said.
“The goal is always to prioritise discharges, keep patients moving safely through the system and free up acute beds for the patients who need them most.
“We also support patients who are unable to get themselves to our clinic services or need extra assistance preparing for procedures.
“The Transit Care Hub has already evolved far beyond its original vision, but we’ll continue working to improve the service to best meet the needs of our community.
“It’s been an amazing 10-year journey to get here, and we’re incredibly proud of what the team has built.”
Nurse Unit Manager Shelly Smalley said her highly qualified team had come from a range of backgrounds to offer comprehensive care to patients.
“We really want people to understand the Transit Care Hub is not just a waiting area – it's a nurse-led unit providing clinical care and it is an integrated and planned part of the hospital journey,” she said.
“Our nurses have extensive skills in emergency, cardiology, surgical and medicine, with many years of experience behind them.
“We also have an educator and clinical facilitator here with us, which has been vital to the upskilling of our team, particularly the new graduates we've just started to bring on board.
“Additionally, our discharge coordinator, a new role established last year, has been incredibly valuable for identifying patients around the hospital who are approaching their time for discharge, moving them to transit, identifying any barriers or putting together a discharge plan for them, and generally making sure they are safe and comfortable and understand their next steps.”
The Logan Transit Care Hub has become an inspiration and exemplar for other hospital and health services.
There are now 22 other Transit Care Hubs or Lounges operating in some of the state’s busiest hospitals and health services, with many representatives visiting Logan Hospital to see how they might adapt the model for their own facilities.
The Transit Care Hub and statewide transit lounges come as part of the Queensland Government’s $80 million investment to increase hospital capacity under the Easier Access to Health Services Plan.