June 2019
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Dr Katharine See: Winter is here
Welcome to winter! The hospital has been busier than ever in the last few weeks, consistently seeing over 300 presentations to the emergency department each day. While the flu season is yet to be declared, the hospital is seeing high numbers of confirmed influenza cases. Almost 20,000 cases of flu have been reported so far this year compared to 2,500 in the same period in 2018. Many of these patients are very unwell. Having looked after a number of them myself in the last few weeks, it serves as a timely reminder as to the importance of protecting ourselves and…
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Research Grand Round: Professor James Boyd
La Trobe University’s Professor of Digital Health, James Boyd, held a lecture at Northern Health on digital data, health informatics and different ways we can use information to improve patient outcomes and the way a health service works. “Health and care systems are complex with many interactions and linkages. No single part of the health system provides a complete picture. It is the whole system and the way that different parts interact which provides a complete picture of the ‘patient pathway’. Using ‘joined up’ information that covers the whole healthcare system allows clinicians to practice knowing the full context of…
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First Code Trauma Simulation
Recently, the first ‘In-Situ Simulation’ was held in the Emergency Department as part of a Code Trauma Scenario. Code Trauma is an activation sequence that provides a staff and service response to a potentially major trauma patient in the Emergency Department, that meets the Code Trauma criteria including abnormal vital signs, specific injuries and/or special circumstances. Simulation is part of a hospital-wide initiative run by the newly formed In-Situ Simulation Clinical Community alongside support from the High Reliability Organisation (HRO) Team at Northern Health. Simulation has been acknowledged as an important part of training in healthcare, with Northern Health having…
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Research Dinner raises vital funds for student research and scholarships
On Wednesday, 12 June, Northern Health Foundation hosted their annual Research Dinner, raising funds towards vital research and education. Hosted at Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, guests included Northern Health Board Chair, Jennifer Williams AM, Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, Northern Health Foundation Board Chair, John Molnar, Parliamentary Secretary for Medical Research, Frank McGuire MP, Northern Health Research Lead, Professor Peter Brooks and Divisional Director of Emergency Services and Director of Cardiology, Professor Bill van Gaal. Jennifer Williams opened the evening saying, “Northern Health is boldly and innovatively committed to enhancing our patients’ quality of life using digital technologies and research breakthroughs.”…
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From hard water to hope
The ‘hard’ water in the northern peninsula of Sri Lanka, is high in calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. This, and the hot, humid weather, increases the risk of urinary tract ailments among the local population, resulting in a significant number of such admissions to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. The Jaffna Teaching Hospital provides tertiary care to more than one million people, and gets referrals from hospitals in all five districts in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It functioned for most parts of the bitter civil war as a sanctuary for the people living in the northern part of Sri…
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Flu clinic smashing records
Northern Health’s flu clinic team is seeing an unprecedented demand for flu vaccines, having given over 14,000 vaccinations to the public in just over a month, compared to 11,000 vaccinations in three months last year. The team on the front line, Madelaine Flynn, Manager of Infection Prevention and Kamal Sidhu, Clinical Nurse Consultant, told us families drive a few hours to get their children vaccinated and take advantage of the program. “They’ve seen the media around the flu, and that has brought to the forefront how important it is to be vaccinated. They come to Northern, and tell us that…
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Northern Health trials interpreting via tablets
As part of our HRO-Trusted Care transformation, Northern Health teams are working on numerous projects with the aim to improve patient experience. One of these projects is the ‘Video Interpreting via Portable Device’ trial, which aims to look at options of delivering quick video interpreting services on demand, whilst improving patient experience by reducing the interpreter waiting time. “The idea behind video interpreting is now we have the technology to be able to deliver interpreting services via video. The timing is quite good, as the hospital is expanding and it takes a considerable amount of time for interpreters to go…
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You can save a life today
The Northern Health Foundation are urging staff and the community to come together to raise funds for life-saving defibrillators. Launched on 1 June 2019, their new fundraising campaign will raise money for state of the art upgrades to 60 defibrillators across our services. This means that if anyone has heart failure, the best equipment will be immediately at hand and available to people of Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The campaign will run through to the end of October 2019, with a fundraising target of $450,000. Professor Bill van Gaal, Divisional Director of Emergency Services and Director of Cardiology, encourages people to…