August 2019
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Dying to Know Day
Northern Health is marking Dying to Know Day in the Northern Hospital foyer today, to change the stigma around talking about death by activating conversations and curiosity. We welcomed Mr Andrew Giles, Federal Member for Scullin, to Epping Gardens Heritage Care and Northern Hospital. While talking to one of our patients at Epping Gardens, Mr Giles said how important it is to have respectful care at the end of life. “It’s important to have these conversations – it’s about the dignity for everyone. It means a lot to me to be able to talk to palliative care patients and understand…
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Dr Barbara Hayes: Public Advocate Guides
Dr Barbara Hayes recently spoke at the launch of two Office of the Public Advocate Guides on medical treatment decision making at the Carers Victoria, Dementia and Family Carers Conference. Launched by Colleen Pierce, Public Advocate from the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate, the guides cover five areas that relate to making medical treatment decisions for a person who lacks medical decision making capacity – to consent to their own treatment. The areas covered are medical decision-making framework, the role of the medical treatment decision maker, using advance care directives, using the form, ‘What I understand to be the…
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Using Resources Wisely
Over the last financial year, again we’ve experienced strong growth in our services with emergency department presentations up 8.4% and hospital admissions up 4.6%. At the beginning of this new financial year, we’ve needed to focus on our budgets to plan our activities and operations to support this continued growth. As a significant public health care provider, we are entrusted with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year to deliver patient care. It’s our responsibility to ensure that these resources are spent wisely. I believe that there is still significant waste across our services that we need to address.…
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World Breastfeeding Week
Northern Health is celebrating World Breastfeeding Week with a foyer display and an afternoon tea held today at Ward 11. World Breastfeeding Week encourages mothers to breastfeed to help their baby grow healthy and strong. “We understand while breastfeeding is natural for the baby, sometimes mothers may need more support, so this week is a great opportunity to raise awareness of Northern Health’s Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic and the support services available to mothers within the northern community”, said Natalie Mckell, Clinical Coordinator, Domiciliary and Lactation. The Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic provides information, assistance, education, reassurance and counselling on breastfeeding and infant…
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Foundation receives a gold donation
Grateful for the care James Furletti received at Northern Hospital Epping after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, he wanted to say thank you by donating a gold nugget to the Northern Health Foundation. “My experience here was unbelievable, I had really good care. I couldn’t be any happier,” he said. He came to Northern Health late September last year, and had bowel surgery in October. “I had surgery and then spent some time in the Intensive Care Unit. The care was just fantastic and I feel really good now,” he said. The doctors here saved my life and I wanted…
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Choosing Wisely
Choosing Wisely is a global initiative aimed at reducing unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures and empowering consumers to ask questions about their healthcare management. Northern Health joined the year-long Choosing Wisely Victorian Collaborative in July 2018. Northern Health implemented several projects to address these objectives including reducing CT Pulmonary Angiograms (CTPAs), coagulation studies and ultrasounds unnecessarily ordered. Sandy Ayoub, Project Manager for this initiative, says Choosing Wisely is a simple, broad and extremely valuable concept in healthcare. “We are always looking to be more efficient, and that is the primary object of Choosing Wisely.” “By implementing evidence-based practice to reduces…
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Hand hygiene boosted to 96% on Ward 3
Hand hygiene is always very important in healthcare. On Ward 3 at Northern Hospital it is particularly important, as the ward cares predominately for oncology/haematology patients, who are often immunosuppressed and vulnerable. Recently, the ward’s hand hygiene results increased from 79% to 96%, and graduate nurse, Acqua Makomo, is a big reason for the impressive increase. Ward 3 were looking to increase their hand hygiene results, to improve patient care, which is where Acqua stepped in. Acqua undertook a hand hygiene-based project as her quality and safety activity which graduates complete as part of their 12 month program. Through her…