During the four weeks in February, Northern Health’s ‘Smart Eating Staff Challenge’ motivated some of our staff to make healthier, smarter choices.

At the start of the campaign, Dietitians, Amy Castelli and Cliona Twohig, emphasised the idea behind the campaign was to motivate our staff to look after themselves. The main goal was to encourage staff to make simple and small changes every day, which would lead to developing healthy long-term habits.

The staff shared their February healthy eating photos through the dedicated Intranet page, with the photos ranging from dinners on the balcony after work to staff team lunches.

After careful consideration, Debra Bourne, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, has chosen the winning photo – the Broadmeadows team:

Cliona Twohig, Dietitian, submitted the photo saying: “Here are the Dietitians, Speech Pathologists and Food Service staff at Broadmeadows Hospital. We got together to enjoy some tasty, nourishing foods last week. It was a great excuse to share lunch with colleagues we don’t often see outside of our business duties.”

On behalf of the Broadmeadows team, Cliona accepted the prize today, adding that February has been an exciting month for everyone involved.

“It was inspiring to see staff excited about their fruit and vegetables, and sharing their meals. I think everyone enjoyed the campaign and I am hoping we can bring it back next year. The $100 Coles-Myer gift card will go towards a shared lunch for the teams involved, and we can’t wait to get back together and share our healthy meals again,” she said.

Northern Health’s focus on healthy eating doesn’t end here, as we will be announcing Northern Health’s new staff food policy – more details to follow next week! Stay tuned…

Last night, the Northern Health Foundation held their annual ‘Thank You’ event, acknowledging the continued and generous contributions of Foundation supporters and their families.

Held at The Mail Exchange Hotel, a historical Melbourne venue owned by Foundation patron Alex Robertson, the evening was filled with great food and networking, and was a wonderful way to personally show our supporters the difference they have made to Northern Health.

Andrew Williamson, Executive Director Public Affairs and Foundation, opened the event by highlighting how the contributions of our donors has helped to improve and upgrade several areas throughout Northern Health, including the Children’s Ward, Neonatal Unit, Day Oncology Unit, Paediatric Emergency High Acuity Unit, Paediatric High Dependency Unit (currently under construction), the purchase of emergency accommodation in Wollert and funding of research scholarships and programs.

John Molnar, Northern Health Foundation Board Chair, said the Foundation exists to support the life changing, and often life-saving, work of Northern Health.

“I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to all of our generous supporters, patrons, corporate partners, dedicated volunteers, Northern Health staff and everyone who has contributed towards our fundraising efforts through donations, grants and support at our events,” he said.

“As the demand for health services in the north continues to increase, the Foundation will continue to do all it can to support Northern Health to provide outstanding health care for our community,” he added.

“Thank you for your continued support of the Northern Health Foundation.”

Check out the video below to hear from some of our staff about the contribution our donors have made to their areas:

Yesterday, 13 of Northern Health’s consumers and volunteers completed a tour of the new Ward 17 (ICU) as part of Northern Hospital’s Stage 2 Tower Expansion Project.

Since September 2017 to mid 2018, consumers and volunteers at Northern Health were involved at all stages of the design process, and provided valuable ideas and suggestions from their experiences at Northern Health and other hospitals.

This feedback was considered and incorporated into the plans for the tower expansion design, and the consumers and volunteers had the opportunity yesterday to see the design come to life!

Mary De Gori, Director of Capital Planning and Development, thanked the consumers and volunteers for their input throughout the different design phases.

“They had really valuable suggestions, which have been incorporated into the building,” she said.

“Yesterday, the consumers seemed very happy with how it all came together, and we received some great feedback from them,” she added.

The Northern Hospital Stage 2 Expansion Project will expand the facilities and infrastructure completed in June 2016 (three storey tower block connected to the main hospital). The Victorian Government committed $162.7M for the Stage 2 project to be delivered in an early works ($22.17M) and main works ($140.5M) stage.

‘Stage 2 early works’ commenced late March 2018, with the construction of a new loading dock, mortuary, back of house (supply, environmental services, stores) and plant to ground level, including fit-out of a Level 1 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 18 ICU beds.

Consumer Participation Coordinator, Sherrilyn Ballard, said, “It was a great joy to see many faces light up in response to seeing the fruition of their patient and family-centred feedback come to life.”

“To see it from the drawings on the table to how it looks today is just brilliant,” Consumer, Faye Foggie, said of the tour yesterday.

“As a consumer, it was great to have a voice,” Faye added.

Another of our consumers, Veronica Jeffrey, said, “We were engaged from the start, so it’s very nice to see the finished project we have all contributed to. The hospital really listened to us.”

The current ICU is planned to move into the new ICU on 26 March 2019.

Staff tours of the new Ward 17 (ICU) will be commencing 4 March 2019 and RSVP’s are essential. To book a tour, please click here. 

The project team have also established a portal on the Intranet, where staff can view images, floor plans and answer any questions you may have. Click here to go to the portal. 

Last week, Northern Hospital’s Emergency Department experienced the highest demand in its recorded history. This culminated on Monday, 25 February, when the department saw the highest number of patient presentations to date – caring for 343 patients in just one day.

From Monday, 18 February through to Sunday, 24 February, the Emergency Department experienced a record average of 307 presentations a day.

During that time, the team met the ‘ambulance offload’ time, which is a fantastic achievement for Northern Health, and makes us one of the best performing hospitals in ambulance offload rates.

Cindy Joffe, Divisional Director, said the department performed very well during this time.

“This means the majority of our patients were seen in a timely manner, and placed in the right bed at the right time,” she explained.

Reflecting on Monday, Cindy added that all patients were treated safely, and feels very proud of the team that pulled together and worked very hard to ensure there were no clinical incidents. The category 1 and 2 patients, who are classified as the sickest patients, were seen in the correct time.

“We started Monday with the usual amount of staff, and as we noticed the demand was increasing more than usual, we called on more staff to come in. We followed all the escalation procedures to make sure we could continue safely into the night,” she said.

Nurses were placed in the waiting room to ensure all the patients received appropriate care and attention.

“We have an excellent relationship with Ambulance Victoria and we talked about the possible causes of the patient increase. There actually wasn’t one specific cause that initiated this number of patients. The increased volume of patients was present on the same day at other hospitals as well,” she said.

Dean Pritchard, Acting Director of Emergency Department, expressed his appreciation for staff who worked these record days.

“A huge thank you to our medical, nursing, support and operational staff for their support over the past week. The combined efforts of the Emergency Department, access team and inpatient units allowed over 2,100 patients to be treated in a timely fashion,” he said.

Chief Operating Officer, Jane Poxon, said, “I’m proud of the way staff have responded to the large numbers of patients arriving at the Northern Hospital Emergency Department.

“Last week was certainly a testament to the dedication and collaboration of our Northern Health team.”

This morning, Northern Health hosted its first community wellbeing session with our neighbours from across the way, Pacific Epping Shopping Centre.

Dietitian, Emily Farrugia, hosted the session, discussing all things healthy eating in Q&A style, to help answer any questions the visitors and shoppers had about their diet.

Customers had the chance to get tips and advice on how to adopt smarter eating habits, and learn about Northern Health’s dietetics services in the community.

“Today was a great opportunity to engage with our local community and bust some myths around nutrition and health – it was great to see plenty of interest and provide others with a step in the right direction – with the right advice – to take charge of their health,” Emily said.

The event was the first of a series of specialised sessions, coordinated by the Northern Health Foundation, with the aim to enhance community engagement and overall wellbeing in Melbourne’s north.

Northern Health Foundation Director, Yvonne Amos, said, “Today we launched a series of health and wellbeing sessions in conjunction with Pacific Epping to further our work in helping to build a healthier northern community. Thank you to all who supported us today and we look forward to the next event in March.”

The next session will be focused on ‘mums and bubs’. Stay tuned…

Today, a new patient check-in system called Q-Flow has launched in Specialist Clinics at Broadmeadows Hospital.

In the coming weeks, Q-Flow will be rolling out across the Craigieburn and Northern Hospital campuses.

Q-Flow is a patient flow management system that is designed to improve both the patient and clinician experience whilst attending Specialist Clinics.

The new check-in and billing system will help to improve patient flow, reduce waiting times for appointments and increase clinic efficiency.

Patients are able to check themselves in for their appointment via self-serve kiosks, similar to check-in kiosks at airports.

Once checked in, patients receive a printed ticket and are directed to a designated waiting area nearest to their clinic location. Using the Q-Flow system, the clinician can then call the patient directly to the clinic room through information screens that are located in the waiting areas.

Associate Program Director – Specialist Clinics (Projects), Michael Brown, says the system will help to create a more seamless experience for everyone and reduce the amount of paper-based forms required.

“Q-Flow provides the opportunity to improve the safety and effectiveness of how we run Specialist Clinics at Northern Health. It is a big change for our patients and staff and will provide a significant improvement to the overall experience in Specialist Clinics,” he says.

For patients, Q-Flow sends SMS appointment and updated referral reminders, checks Medicare eligibility, and provides patients with expected wait times.

For clinicians, Q-Flow removes the need for paper outcome slips, integrates and streamlines the use of interpreting services in clinics, ensures that all MBS billing information and appointment outcomes are actioned, provides the clinician visibility of future clinic capacity when re-booking patients, collects room utilisation data and assists scheduling of clinics.

Training dates are now available for staff. Training will take approximately 30 minutes for clinicians and up to 1 hour for reception/administration staff.

For more information about Q-Flow and training sessions, please click here.

This morning, Northern Health hosted our second Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards ceremony.

These awards have been designed to formally recognise outstanding contributions by our employees and celebrate staff excellence.

Northern Health Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, presented the awards to this round of recipients.

“We have over 5,000 staff in a wide range of areas, dedicated to providing great care for our patients and we would like to reward their hard work and commitment to patients,” Siva said.

In this round of awards, a new category was introduced – Clinical Excellence. This new category was recommended as part of our ‘High Reliability Organisation – Trusted Care’ work.

The Clinical Excellence award recognises a team or individual that is generous with knowledge, instills confidence in patients and colleagues, and achieves the best patient outcomes.

In October last year, the award ceremony was held for the first time, and six staff were recognised for their achievements. Last year’s winners success stories were shared on iNews, profiling their Northern experience and dedication.

In this round of awards, 24 nominations were received, and the judging panel had a difficult task in deciding the winners because of the high standard of entries.

And the winners are…

Clinical Excellence: Jimmy Goulis, Physiotherapist

Patient Experience: Katherine Healy, Dietitian

Excellence in Safety: Melanie Riseley, Maternity Services Educator

Innovation: Barbara Hayes, Clinical Leader – Advance Care Planning

Above and Beyond: Michelle Robins, Nurse Practitioner, Diabetes

Rising Star: Alysha Spencer, Advisor, Organisational Capability

Siva said, “These are staff who exemplify a strong and positive workplace culture – and commitment to our patients.”

Northern Health would like to congratulate all the winners and thank our nominators, their teams, and our generous sponsors, BankVic and Maxxia. The winners will feature on iNews in the coming weeks.

Photo (left to right: Alysha Spencer, Melanie Riseley, Katherine Healy, Barbara Hayes, Michelle Robins, Flo Zimmermann accepting award on behalf of Jimmy Goulis)

Northern Health continually strives to improve its responsiveness to diversity and the language, religious and cultural needs of our community.

We provide the same quality of service for all patients and their families, regardless of their ethnicity and ability to speak English – an important consideration given our patients are born in 184 countries, speak 106 languages and follow 90 religions and beliefs.

This year, the demand for our Transcultural and Language Services (TALS) has grown by 8% every month, resulting in the hiring of four additional in-house interpreters, bringing the total to 42.

New welcome signs currently being installed across Northern Health are a good example of how the TALS team is partnering with Patient Experience & Consumer Participation to achieve this.

The sign welcomes patients in the top 14 languages spoken, and acknowledges the traditional owners of the land, the Wurundjeri people.

Cultural safety is an Indigenous-led model of care.

“Clinical leaders have identified the need for culturally safe health care to improve Indigenous health outcomes,” explained Karen Bryant, Senior Aboriginal Liaison Officer, Aboriginal Support Unit.

Emiliano Zucchi, Manager Transcultural and Language Services and Aboriginal Support Unit, said the welcome signs were a clear expression of our commitment as a health service to provide a culturally safe environment for our patients.

“We are not only committed to treating our patients well and in a culturally respectful manner, but also empowering our staff, and supporting them to carry out culturally significant tasks as part of our service delivery,” he said.