August 2021
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Jo McKenna: Volunteer and Consumer
Jo McKenna started volunteering at Broadmeadows Health Service (now Broadmeadows Hospital) in 2000, and has spent many years on the wards visiting patients, conducting raffles, running activities, talking with clients and keeping people company. Jo has continued to volunteer at Broadmeadows Hospital two days a week, including more recently supporting patients to navigate Q-Flow when attending outpatient appointments. In 2011, Jo joined the Consumer Participation Advisory Committee and spent about six years contributing to helping improve access for people with disabilities at Northern Hospital Epping and Broadmeadows Hospital. In 2015, Jo joined the new Northern Health Consumer Network and continued…
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100,000 COVID-19 vaccine milestone!
This week, Northern Health has reached an incredible milestone in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations. Since the rollout began in March, Northern Health has provided over 100,000 vaccinations to our community – a major milestone we should all be proud of. Northern Health commenced COVID-19 vaccinations on 9 March 2021 at Northern Hospital Epping, where the very first staff members were excited to receive their vaccine. Since then, the vaccination clinic has moved to a mass vaccination hub located at Plenty Ranges Arts & Convention Centre in South Morang, to help provide vaccinations to the community on a larger scale.…
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Virtual walk arounds
Northern Health is constantly adapting to the challenges of working in a COVID-19 environment and expanding our virtual approach to the way we provide care. We have been conducting virtual Executive Patient Safety walk arounds for some time and recently have been conducting virtual accreditation assessment practices in readiness for continuing our accreditation assessment which commenced in May. Laura Hughes, Project Manager, explained these sessions have been set up by the HRO and Accreditation teams to prepare our wards and departments for both on site and virtual assessments and ensure that the technology supports a successful assessment for our remote…
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One happy family: PSAs at Broadmeadows Hospital
The tight-knit family of 20 Patient Services Assistants (PSAs) at Broadmeadows Hospital and Craigieburn Centre have been keeping their sites spotlessly clean, while never losing banter and a genuine connection with each other. Wendy Nicol, Operations Manager, PSA & Cleaning Services, said the team has a really high standard of cleaning, highlighting the way their PSA Supervisor, Snezana Velevski, works with her team, and the health service as a whole. “She keeps on top of everything. COVID-19 has presented challenges to some of our staff. We have staff who had to homeschool their children, staff who have been unwell, so…
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Clinical Documentation Integrity Program
Clinical documentation in the healthcare record is vital in planning, resource consumption and improving patient outcomes. It is where our clinical coders abstract the information they need to classify diagnoses and interventions. Often, the language used for clinical purposes and that required by our clinical coders is different. Clinicians frequently use generalised clinical terms, signs, symbols, and abbreviations. While this is meaningful for communicating between treating healthcare professionals, these terms are not always able to be translated into codes required for reporting and funding or coded to the required specificity that reflects the complexity of the patient. This disconnect can significantly…
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Accreditation resumes from Tuesday
Northern Health’s Accreditation resumes next week on Tuesday, 17 August, and will last until Thursday afternoon, 19 August 2021. Maree Glynn, Director of Clinical Practice Improvement, explained that, this time, we will have three Victorian surveyors onsite who were not part of the original survey team and two surveyors will conduct the assessment virtually, including our lead surveyor, Wendy Wood. “The campuses that will be visited in this round are Northern Hospital Epping, Broadmeadows Hospital and Craigieburn Centre. All of our clinical areas that were not visited in May will be visited and areas completed in May will not be…
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Family Planning Clinic team receives University of Melbourne Grant
The Northern Health Family Planning Clinic team at Broadmeadows Hospital has received the University of Melbourne Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Innovation Grant to co-design women’s reproductive health services. The grant supports novel research ideas for early and mid-career researchers, and will allow the team to partner with women to improve reproductive health services in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The research team consists of Associate Professor Lisa Hui, Women’s and Children’s Research Lead and MFM Specialist; Dr Jeanie Henderson, Gynaecologist and Family Planning Clinic Medical Lead; Kate Chaouki, Family Planning Clinic Coordinator and Midwife; and Eleanor Johnson, Research Midwife. They are…
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The Big Idea: The chosen seven
The Big Idea Campaign drew to a close on 22 July, with 66 ideas submitted from across the organisation. Ideas were received from a mix of clinical and non-clinical staff, across all Northern Health sites, and ranged in size from small clinical changes to large, organisation-wide initiatives. “The Innovation Assembly reviewed all submissions and 12 ideas progressed to the refinement stage. Seven applicants progressed to the final stage to present their ideas to Siva Sivarajah, Chief Executive,” explained Ariana Carrodus, Project Manager. At the presentation to the Chief Executive and Dr Bill Shearer, Executive Sponsor of the project, each presenter…