November 2019
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New Bed Management Portal: Supporting the patient journey
A patient journey provides a unique picture of how our health service operates through the eyes and ears of our patients. The Bed Management Portal in use at Northern Health plays a vital role in tracking this journey. “It was after a visit to Canterbury New Zealand, that we realised there was an opportunity to update our current Bed Management Portal to help better support a patients journey,” says Ed Savill, Operations Director, Cancer Services. With a working group of clinicians from each discipline and from different sites providing support, Rowan Shield from the Decision Support team got to work,…
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Northern Health Foundation Dinner: Feel the beat for the 80’s
On Saturday night, Northern Health Foundation hosted their 80’s themed 2019 Annual Dinner, raising funds for defibrillators across Northern Health. Held at Casa D’Abruzzo Club in Epping, the event raised an impressive $95,000 to support the purchase of state of the art defibrillators across our four campuses. Guests arrived in their best 80’s outfits complete with boomboxes, crimped hair and scrunchies! Hosted by iconic Australian pop group, The Chantoozies, guests enjoyed drinks, a three course meal and plenty of prizes with a raffle, balloon pop and live and silent auctions. Australia’s most loved and in demand 80’s cover band, Stand…
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Research Grand Round: The Smart Hospital Living Lab
Professor Vassilis Kostakos from the University of Melbourne will be speaking at a special Research Grand Round on 19 November on ‘The Smart Hospital Living Lab’, an ongoing project to improve how hospitals run. The Smart Hospital Living Lab develops technology with two objectives, namely to improve hospital safety and to improve hospital logistics. Northern Health has contributed significantly to the Smart Hospital Living Lab, through projects such as patient & staff tracking and the smart pillbox. Vassilis will present a range of projects under the Smart Hospital Living Lab, including the above mentioned projects. He will take this opportunity to…
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Quality Account and Annual Meeting
I am pleased to share that Northern Health has released our 2018-19 Quality Account, which has been submitted to DHHS and published on our website. Our Quality Account showcases many of the initiatives and collaborations we have undertaken in the past 12 months and highlights significant improvements in the quality of care and patient safety. Northern Health’s Quality Account is developed to inform our patients and community about how quality and safety is monitored and improved throughout the health service. It highlights information about our services and changes we have made to improve care and patient outcomes, along with patient…
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Collaborating on Safer Care at Northern
Yvonne Chan, Nurse Unit Manager Maternity, and Abby Monaghan, Quality Coordinator Women’s and Children’s, attended a three-day Safer Care Victoria workshop, as part of a wider collaborative between Victorian hospitals and Safer Care Victoria. Yvonne is part of the ‘Better Births’ project, a Safer Care Victoria initiative that aims to reduce third and fourth degree tear rates in women who give birth. “The goal is to reduce the tear rate by 50 per cent and our hospital works in collaboration with other organisations on this project. There is a number of strategies which we are working on, and they include…
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Stella bakes her 1000th cupcake for ED staff
Stella Gibbons has just baked her 1000th cupcake for our emergency department staff. Stella began baking cupcakes when her daughter, Genevieve, completed her post graduate emergency nursing qualification at Northern Hospital. Stella tells us, “Gen came home one day and she’d had a really hard night shift. She slept all day so while she was sleeping, I baked two dozen red velvet cupcakes for her to take back the next night shift. From then on, I just kept making two dozen, and then it went up to four dozen – and now I’m up to nine dozen!” Even though Gen…
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Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health Study Day
Northern Health hosted a Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health Study Day in October, and welcomed a range of expert speakers, both internal and external to our health service. Jason Cirone, Northern Health Refugee and Asylum Seeker Working Group Chair, said the presentations covered topics on the latest settlement data in Whittlesea and Hume, local support services and access criteria, clinical information related to trauma informed care and paediatric, general medical issues and infectious diseases. “We were very fortunate to have two presenters speak about their personal experiences as refugees. Kurdish refugee, Amir Abdi, spoke of his journey to Australia as…
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Bev Carman hosts 10th annual Oaks Day Luncheon
Long standing Northern Health Foundation supporter and Kilmore resident, Bev Carman, hosted her 10th annual Oaks Day Luncheon event on Thursday, 7 November. Guests celebrated Oaks Day in true form with Kilmore Trackside awash with florals and fascinators for a day of music, dancing, food and fashion – with all proceeds from the event going towards cancer services at Northern Health. Guests enjoyed champagne on arrival, a three-course luncheon and entertainment including competitions for ‘Fashions on the Field’ and best hat. Bev said the event is important because it means she can support our services. “The money we’ve raised in…