For the fifth year running, ISS Facility Services have brought Christmas magic and joy to the Children’s Ward, by gifting presents kindly donated by our local community.

Snez Poposka, Facilities Service Manager ISS, began the Christmas Appeal in 2017, with the hope of putting a smile on children’s faces during their hospital stay over Christmas and the New Year.

“The idea was born five years ago. Being a mother myself, I often thought of all the sick children spending their Christmas in a hospital bed, instead of their families. I didn’t want any of those children to miss out on the joy and happiness of the festive season. Each year we donate more than 100 gifts to the children in the Children’s Ward. Over the years, we have donated over 500 gifts to the children at the Northern Hospital, Epping.

“These gifts have been donated by staff at ISS, Northern Health and the community. It’s a special feeling to see the smile on a sick child once they’ve been gifted a game or a toy. It’s rewarding to be able to give back something to the community and it’s fantastic to see that we have all joined forces together, ISS and staff at Northern Health, to bring this initiative to life.”

Soft toys, colouring books, puzzles and games were among the many gifts donated by our kind and generous community. ISS delivered the gifts last week, with many children, and their families, beaming at the sight of colourfully wrapped presents.

“I would like to express my gratitude to all the staff at ISS and Northern Health, as well as the Northern Health Foundation, for their continuous support and generosity over the years,” said Ms Poposka.

Alecia Caddy, NUM, Children’s Ward, Northern Hospital, Epping, said, “We feel incredibly fortunate to be able to have the ISS team visit Ward Two and donate such amazing gifts to children during the Christmas season. The smiles and pure joy that these gifts bring, to brighten their days spent away from family and friends is just so special!”

“We thank you and are truly grateful for your generosity and kindness.”

The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) team is excited to introduce Lauren Andrew as the EMR Implementation and Adoption Manager.

As a physiotherapist by background, Lauren has always been driven by improving patient care and safety. She was first involved in the digital health transformations by implementing an EMR at Royal Children’s Hospital in 2016, and has since worked for almost a decade in informatics. “With projects like EMR, it is really satisfying to see improvement in patient safety and care, and having a single source of truth for clinical data that clinicians can access at their fingertips to drive positive changes in clinical care. This part of the project is what motivates me most”, says Lauren.

One can say Lauren is extremely dedicated to implementing successful EMRs as this is her third EMR project. “I think EMR go live is an amazing time. The energy of the EMR and leadership team working together to support and assist staff to use the system is something really great to experience”, says Lauren. During go live, she often finds herself celebrating the EMR trainers and super users as they worked extremely hard to ensure that their colleagues are well trained and supported when the system is implemented, and that they are the “stars of the show” especially during the first 4 weeks of go live.

With her new role as the EMR Implementation and Adoption Manager, she will be working with the Executives, Site Directors, Head of Units, and Nurse Unit Managers to ensure the organisation is ready for the EMR go live in September 2023. “Implementing an EMR will be a huge change in how Northern Health delivers patient care. For many Northern Health Accountable Leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), who have worked with the EMR team on design and build, they already have a head start in understanding what is being implemented. But for most staff, 2023 will be the year that they learn about the EMR and how to use the system to deliver patient care”, says Lauren.

Speaking from her most recent EMR implementation at Canberra, while implementing an EMR is exciting, it can also be somewhat daunting for staff, as “they will have to learn a new system, support their colleagues, and continue patient care all together in a short time”. One of Lauren’s top priorities in the coming 3 months, other than getting to know our staff and the community we serve, is “to work out how best to design and deliver an operational readiness program tailored for Northern Health”. “Releasing staff to attend EMR training will be difficult. Northern Health has a proud recent history of managing change, and I am confident that we as an organisation will get through it together”, Lauren concludes.

With Christmas just passed, she has revealed to us one of the items on her wish list – that Santa will bring us more nurses in 2023!

A very warm welcome to Lauren from the EMR team!

Christmas spirit is back in full swing at Northern Health! The Annual Christmas Decorating Competition is on again in 2022, after a challenging two years. Staff were encouraged to deck Northern Health’s halls with COVID Safe cheer, get creative and have fun, and they did!

We received over 30 entries from the creative minds of Northern Health, featuring The Polar Express, Dreaming of White Christmas, the Grinch, Michael Bublé and Mariah Carrey singing duet, as well as some hardworking (and cheeky) Elves, to name just a few.

The festive decorations have brought much joy and delight to our staff, patients, visitors and their families.

Northern Health judges, team of Executives, had a very difficult decision to make to choose the winners in this year’s Christmas Decorating Competition. They all agreed that staff have shown incredible skill, craftmanship and impressive creative talent!

And the winners of the 2022 Northern Health Annual Christmas Decorating Competition are…

• First prize – $1,000: Ward 1, Bundoora Centre
• Second prize – $200: VVED, Northern Hospital
• Third prize – $200: Surgical Centre, Broadmeadows Hospital

And we have two Highly Commended departments, winning a $100 each:

1. Craigieburn Centre
2. Support Services, Northern Hospital
   and a Special Mention to the Short Stay Unit at Northern Hospital Epping for their efforts and wonderful sportsmanship 😊 – they win a hamper donated by Northern Health Foundation.

Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners. Please see the images from the winning departments below.

Wishing you a happy festive season!

Northern Health’s HRO Explorer Initiative has just concluded, and judging by the feedback received from the participating staff members and departments, it has been a roaring success.

The program itself gives employees the opportunity to work outside of their normal duties in another department to foster relationships and build understanding, ultimately adding individual and organizational value.  It was developed from a submission to ‘The Big Idea’ in early 2022 and then finessed to align with the HRO principle ‘Deference to Expertise’.

Physiotherapist Steph Castagnini, who got to work with HRO reflected, “Overall, I’d definitely recommend the program to staff who are not sure what their next move is – they may rediscover passion for their usual role or open doors to new opportunities.”

Julie Torres, a physiotherapist with Allied Health, opted to explore the Quality and Safety division.  She gained an appreciation for the work involved in following up patient complaints, health literary consideration for education material, and the efforts made to involve consumers in decision making at Northern Health.

Molecular Pathology’s Joshua Smith said of his time in the Digital Health division, “I have always had an interest in IT and data analytics however have never thought of pursuing a career in it. The Explorers Program has definitely made me more interested in working in Digital Health.

Andrea Clarke from Compliance stepped into Strategy and Planning. She realised she had many transferable skills and commented “The work the planning unit does is fascinating. They make very important contributions to future-proofing our health service to meet the needs of our community.”

Although most Explorers expressed difficulty in switching roles for one day a week with no back fill, the over arching theme appears to be that, through the program, participants gained a greater understanding of their chosen department, which they were able to channel back to the benefit of their own work environment.

The Department of Public Affairs consider themselves fortunate to have participated in this program. According to Pina Di Donato, Executive Director Public Affairs and Foundation “I was thrilled to discover that our staff wanted to learn more about what we do in Public Affairs. The program has opened up so many new doors. We suddenly became aware of the skills that were lying untapped within our own workforce. We are pleased to have since welcomed Slobodanka Trajkovski and Stephen Carnell, who has written this story, to our team. They have each added considerable value to the work we are doing.”

The pilot program was spearheaded by the irrepressible Cassie Bramston of the Transformation Unit (HRO).  Despite the hard work of co-ordinating Explorers, substantive departments and receiving divisions, Cassie was able to maintain a level of positivity which filtered down to the rest of the participants, setting the tone for this and future versions of the Explorers Program. Cassie said “It wasn’t until I started to collate responses from the focus group of the participants that I started to realise just how successful the program had been.”

Results were presented to the Executive just prior to Christmas, who, by all accounts, were delighted with the outcome. The next intake for the Career Pathways Program is set to commence early in 2023. Keep your eyes open for a chance to participate in culture changing initiative.

 

 

This year, Northern Health Foundation partnered with Play for Purpose; a not-for-profit online charitable lottery. The first raffle began in January 2022, with its attractive prizes gaining popularity among our staff and northern community, selling over 2,800 tickets in less than three months.

The benefit of this partnership allows charities across Australia to continue raising much-needed funds for their health service. Giving our community a chance to win great prizes, and having 50 per cent of all ticket proceeds directed back to the Foundation, became an innovative way to continue our fundraising efforts, while giving back to our community, all year round.

As 2022 draws to a close, we are thrilled to announce that, with your support and our partnership with Play for Purpose, we raised over $38,000 this year, with two Northern Health staff members winning major prizes. The proceeds will support Northern Health Foundation’s 2022-23 campaign to introduce a new service at Northern Hospital Epping by funding an Anorectal Laboratory. This laboratory will provide access to the latest equipment and treatment plans for OASIS patients (Obstetrics and Sphincter Injuries), without the need to be referred elsewhere.

Pina Di Donato, Executive Director, Public Affairs and Foundation, said, “In a time when fundraising has become restricted and much more challenging, the Play for Purpose raffle has allowed us to continue our fundraising efforts. While this is not solely a Northern Health raffle, it does give our staff and community a chance to win some incredible prizes that we wouldn’t ordinarily have access to.”

We would also like to thank the supporters of our Northern Health Foundation Christmas Raffle. Our lucky first-prize winner was a Northern Health staff member who took home the four-night Daylesford getaway. Together, we were able to raise a total of $4,155 with all funds going towards the purchase of a new Isolette for the Neonatal Unit at Northern Hospital Epping.

We sincerely thank everyone for their support, and look forward to seeing where our fundraising efforts take us in 2023.

If you would like to read more about our major campaign, or purchase your Play for Purpose tickets in Raffle 18, please head to the Foundation website HERE.

As we approach the end of 2022, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past year, and thank our dedicated staff and volunteers for another year of providing care to our community.

Over the last 12 months, the themes that stand out are the resilience of our staff and the willingness to work together to find innovative solutions.

After two years of being focused on our pandemic response, we saw a return to some level of business as usual. Although we continue to live under the cloud of the pandemic, we are hopeful that the effects will become more manageable as time goes on.

Our health service has undergone considerable change and growth in the last 12 months. The mental health disaggregation on 1 July saw us welcome 800 new members to the Northern Health family. We are now the third largest mental health provider in Victoria. Early next year, we will open a new mental health building, with 30 additional beds to provide for the increased demand within our community.

We also saw the expansion of the Virtual ED service to become the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED), servicing the whole of Victoria. This service continues to gather momentum, and has significantly eased pressures on our physical Emergency Department.

These are just two examples of the great work being undertaken across our entire health service.

Each and every one of you, across every Northern Health site, both clinical and non-clinical, should be extremely proud of the contribution you have made. Together, we continue to work towards our ultimate goal of providing outstanding healthcare to our patients, and kindness to their loved ones and each other. I personally thank you for your efforts and your continued support.

Next year is shaping up to be an exciting year, as we embark on some new capital projects and continue to consolidate all the learnings and new skills we have gathered over these challenging times.

On behalf of the Board and Executive, I extend to you and your loved ones my very best wishes for the festive season.

For those of you taking a break, please enjoy your well-deserved rest. And to those who will be working during the festive period, we thank you for your commitment.

 

Siva Sivarajah

Chief Executive

Last week at Northern Health, we celebrated the achievements of our long-service staff as part of the 2022 Staff Service Awards.

More than 400 staff were acknowledged for their dedication to our health service. Among those were Susan Short, Rhonda Lark, Freda Kotsios and Jeanette Kamar, who all marked 40 years of service in 2022.

Susan Short is an Enrolled Nurse at Northern Health. She commenced at PANCH in 1982 working in Plastic Surgery, before moving to Outpatients and the Colorectal Ward in 1985. She currently works in Ward 16 and Outpatients at Northern Hospital Epping.

“I have enjoyed every moment of those 40 years. I have met such great people, staff and patients. Although some things have changed, in nursing, patients will always need love and care,” Sue said.

Cathy Fletcher, Nurse Unit Manager, Specialists Clinics Outpatients Services, and Susan’s manager, said Susan’s knowledge, including plastering, vascular wound care and plastics, enables her to provide outstanding care to her patients.

“I would like to thank Sue for her hard work and dedication and congratulate her on reaching 40 years of outstanding service at Northern Health,” she said.

Jeanette Kamar, Accreditation Support Officer, has worked with Maree Glynn, Director of Clinical Practice Improvement, for more than 30 years.

“Whatever position Jeanette has been in, she has always been passionate and dedicated to her work. Her application and dedication to her work goes well beyond normal work hours to achieve deadlines and the goals that she sets herself,” Maree said.

Jeanette has worked in a number of roles during her time at Northern Health. She was the Injury Prevention Coordinator where she was “instrumental” in reducing falls with harm. She has also been involved in falls research which resulted in several published articles and the development of the Northern Health Stratify Falls Assessment tool. This led to a randomised trial in public hospitals across Melbourne.

Jeanette was awarded a Healthscope Award in 2012 for her work in reducing falls. She was also the Policy and Procedure Coordinator where she helped clinicians on the floor.

“Her dedication and support of her colleagues, and her sense of duty was evident last year when the call for help was made to staff to support the health service’s COVID response. She came back early from long-service leave to work in the COVID Monitoring Program,” Maree said.

“I would like to congratulate Jeanette on her 40 years of nursing. Northern Health patients have been the beneficiary of Jeanette’s hard work, knowledge and dedication.”

Also celebrating 40 years of service in 2022 is Freda Kotsios, Instrument Technician. Freda has been with Northern Health since PANCH, and has worked in CSSD with a number of managers and different staff over the many years.

“Forty years of service in one organisation is something anyone would dream of achieving,” said Melanie Almazan, Freda’s manager.

“I have only worked with Freda for five years, but she is dedication at its finest. She has encountered so many changes in CSSD procedures, and has stood still, adapted to the changes and embraced the changes. I call her ‘mother’, not because she’s the most senior staff, but she cares for others as if they are her children. She takes pride in all the things she does.”

Rhonda Lark started her Northern Health career at PANCH as a cleaner and received in-house training to become a PSA. She spent most of her years in the former Ward B and then eventually moved to Ward 4 at Northern Hospital Epping.

“Rhonda has a good eye for detail and is always happy to help,” said Miguel Barros, Rhonda’s manager.

Featured image: Rhonda Lark, Jeanette Kamar, Freda Kotsios and Sue Short.

Summer is the hottest season of the year, when the days are long, and temperatures soar. During this time, our skin gets exposed to the sun more frequently, and if not protected, can result in significant skin damage.

It is very important that we are all aware of the potential risks of sun damage. Knowing how to protect our skin from ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the best way to prevent melanoma and other skin cancers.

Today, we speak to Dr Aaron Robinson, Head of Dermatology, Northern Health, about skin cancer symptoms, treatment and prevention.

How common is skin cancer in Australia?

Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, with approximately two in three Australians being diagnosed with skin cancer by the age of 70. Basal and squamous cell carcinomas are the most common types of skin cancer in Australia, with melanoma being less common.

What are some of the warning signs of skin cancer? What are the ABCDE signs?

Skin cancer can present as any new mole or other skin lesion growing or changing over time. The “ABCDE” signs are a simple way to identify possible suspicious changes in a lesion that should be brought to the attention of your doctor.

A = asymmetry (lesions becoming asymmetrical)

B = border (lesions with irregular borders)

C = colour (lesions with multiple colours)

D = diameter (lesions growing to have a large diameter above 6mm)

E = evolution (lesions changing over time)

In addition to these changes, lesions that are becoming painful or that bleed without any trauma should also be brought to the attention of your doctor.

Who is most at risk of getting skin cancer?

Skin cancer risk is highest in people who have had significant sun exposure, such as working outside or with outdoor hobbies. In particular, people who regularly have sun exposure to the point of tanning have a higher risk of developing skin cancer. A tan is a sign that your skin is distressed from sun damage – there is no such thing as a healthy tan. People with lighter skin types are also at higher risk of developing skin cancer.

Although some sun exposure is important to maintain adequate Vitamin D levels, the amount of sun required is usually quite minimal. Your GP can also check Vitamin D levels, and this can also be supplemented with tablets if required.

How to prevent skin cancer?

The best way to prevent skin cancer is to minimise sun exposure, and to always use sun protection (such as a hat, long sleeves and sunscreen) when outside for any extended periods. Being aware of your own skin, moles, and seeing your doctor to review any suspicious changing lesions is also important, in order to potentially diagnose any skin cancers early, when they can be easier to treat.

When to see a doctor?

Any new growths or changing lesions should be brought to the attention of your GP, particularly for people that have had a history of significant sun exposure or sun damage. Your doctor may also recommend having a regular check of your skin, if you have a history of significant sun damage, previous skin cancer, or a significant family history of skin cancer. In cases of skin cancer diagnosis or particularly high-risk patients, a referral to a Dermatologist for specialist care might also be appropriate.