This week Northern Health held the inaugural Staff Recognition Awards, acknowledging teams and individuals in a wide range of areas who have demonstrated commitment to high quality outcomes.

The six categories and their winners were presented by our Chief Executive Siva Sivarajah, who said that staff recognised at these Awards are exemplars in a positive culture of respect, integrity and care for our patients and each other.

“We know that our staff are key to Northern Health providing excellent care for our patients. Every day, I see examples of how our staff strive to improve care and the experience of patients and families,” he said.

We are delighted to present the six categories and their winners:

1.       Patient Experience – recognising an individual or team who made a significant achievement in improving the care experience.

Winner: Jessica Permezel

2.       Compassionate care – recognising an individual or team who has shown kindness and compassion towards a patient, family or work colleague.

Winner: Marie Iacopino

3.       Excellence in Safety – recognising a team or individual who has assisted in making Northern Health safer for patients, visitors or staff.

Winner: Dean Pritchard

4.       Innovation – recognising a team or individual who implemented a better way to deliver care or service through a new idea or initiative.

Winner: Justine Slattery

5.       Above and Beyond – an individual who has gone above and beyond in providing care or support to a patient, family or work colleague.

Winner: Vikramjit Multani

6.       Rising Star – a staff member recognised as having great potential to grow and develop in their career at Northern Health.

Winner: Lauren Rogers

Northern Health would like congratulate all the winners and thank our nominators, their teams, and our generous sponsors BankVic and Maxxia.

 

 

 

 

On a recent humid Darwin day, I sat in a room full of people passionate about health service management, waiting for the final speaker of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM) Congress.

It had been a huge week, jam-packed with inspirational presentations, sharing of ideas and the forming of new connections.

The closing keynote was to be delivered by iconic journalist and TV personality, Ray Martin, whose status may have been lost somewhat on the international delegates and those too young to remember his dominance in lounge rooms across Australia.

From the minute Ray commenced talking, he drew his audience into the story of his life and his experience of Aboriginal people in his past and up to the current day.

In much more eloquent phrasing, Ray implored us to simply do better for our Indigenous people.

Ray posed the provocative conclusion that to date, our efforts in truly closing the gap have been shameful. With so many examples across the country of good ideas and passionate well-meaning groups working tirelessly, it was confronting to hear his absolute position on the topic. A position that is quite possibly justified.

When thinking about the diverse and integrated solutions Ray suggested are necessary to really make a difference in this area, it reminded me of our own challenge here at Northern Health, in embarking on a greater focus on ‘Staying Well’.

It may well be a similar list of diverse, yet integrated solutions that we need to consider for our community. A list that is equally unachievable without numerous groups working in partnership towards a shared purpose.

To commence this exciting and indeed worthy endeavour, we ran an ‘Ideas Lab’ session on 4 October 2018 to explore what the concept of ‘staying well’ means to us. A broad range of external people were included in the discussions to help inject fresh ideas and shift the lens through which we view this challenge.

After setting the scene with the common process steps of ‘coming in, getting better, going home, and staying well’, the group of about 50 heard thought-provoking presentations including:

1. Trevor Read, Lightfoot Solutions, talking about the Canterbury NZ experience and forming effective alliance arrangements with a commitment to shared purpose and objectives.

2. Rebecca Jessup, Monash University, breaking down the components of health literacy, including the necessary attributes of health organisations to support health literacy.

3. David Platt, Philips Healthcare, describing virtual models of care already in use across the globe.

4. Daniel Witherington, EY, explored the concept of engaged aging, including how we might engage in creative partnerships and how disruptive technologies could support sustainable aging.

5. Matiu Bush, Bolton Clark and One Good Street, finished the session by grounding us with examples of making significant improvements to people’s lives through social connectedness and simple community initiatives.

As we continue to tackle this pursuit and narrow down the possible strategic directions we might work towards to support our community in ‘staying well’, I encourage you to contribute to the conversation and join in on setting the direction for what might be possible. If you’re keen to join in, contact myself (Briana.Baass@nh.org.au) or the HRO team (HRO@nh.org.au).

Briana Baass, Chief Allied Health Officer

 

What an enjoyable night it was at Northern Health’s Annual Dinner.

It was a night filled with great entertainment, laughter, good food and numerous prizes, as well as support from everyone involved.

Yvonne Amos, Northern Health Foundation Director, expressed her gratitude to all that attended.

“Thank you to our sponsors, supporters, volunteers and Northern Health staff for getting behind our 2018 Annual Dinner in support of the Children’s Ward at Northern Hospital Epping,” she said.

By joining forces, the Northern Health Annual Dinner raised just over $80,000 to support the purchase of medical equipment and upgrading of our Children’s Ward and play area.

“We’ve all been working together to raise these funds and make a difference in the care we provide to our youngest patients and the support available for their families,” Yvonne said.

One in three Australian women over the age of 15 has experienced physical or sexual violence and/or emotional abuse by an intimate partner. One in four women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner. One in five women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner.

Family violence is a crime that is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women and children. It is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. It is serious, prevalent and preventable.

Northern Health recognises that family violence is a health issue and is committed to improving response to family violence for our patients and our staff. Northern Health is only the second health service in Victoria to be awarded White Ribbon Accreditation.

This week is Week Without Violence (WWV), a global campaign to end violence against women.  Join the movement by visiting our foyer at Northern Hospital Epping and participating in our Clothesline Project.

The Clothesline Project is a popular WWV activity for women and their supporters to participate in. The concept is simple – each participant expresses their feelings of support or commitment to end family violence, using words and artwork to paint on a t-shirt. Once finished, the participant hangs the t-shirt on a clothesline – in this case, in our foyer.

Natasha Knapic, Project Officer, Strengthening Hospital Response to Family Violence, said, “I am proud to report that last week at the 2018 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, Northern Health won the award for ‘Whole-of-hospital model for responding to family violence’.

“A Week Without Violence builds on this message. You can join the team by decorating a t-shirt with a message of hope and donating toiletry items to assist our community experiencing family violence. Visit our page, Week Without Violence, on the intranet for more details.”

The Melbourne-based ‘Actuator’ is one of Australia’s premier MedTech commercialisation initiatives.

The Actuator has partnered with hospitals across Victoria to drive clinically-led innovations and provide a pathway for hospital entrepreneurs and startups to access the Actuator accelerator and MedTech’s Got Talent programs.

Northern Health Research Lead Peter Brooks, said this will be a very exciting program for NH Researchers.

“Our researchers will be able to learn ‘worlds best practice’ in innovation, entrepreneurship, commercialisation and be able to be involved in educational and start up funding programs offered by Actuator over the next 2 years,” he said.

The project consists of three programs: educational workshops, commercialisation bootcamps and hackathons for up to 450 hospital students, clinicians and staff; a pre-seed accelerator program for up-to 35 entrepreneurs; and the Actuator accelerator program for up to 40 startups. Other hospitals involved in the program are Peter Mac, Epworth, Ballarat Health Service, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) and Western Health.

The Actuator will also provide a gateway for clinical professionals to become integrated into a healthcare-focused angel network.

Featured image, from left to right: Prof Buzz Palmer CEO Actuator/  Laura Anderson Chair Launch VIC / Minister Innovation and Digital Economy Philip Dalidakis  / Peter Brooks NH Research Lead / Michelle Gallaher Social Science CEO / and Dr Kate Cornick Launch Vic CEO

 

Last night at the 2018 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, Northern Health won the award for ‘Whole-of-hospital model for responding to family violence’  for the initiative, ‘Partnering with the north: evaluating and building capacities for strong families’.

Northern Health partnered with Kilmore District Hospital to tackle family violence in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, including the local government areas of Hume, Whittlesea and Mitchell, which experience significantly higher rates of family violence than the state’s average.

The project involved supporting staff through a major cross-organisation cultural change process, as well as policies of zero tolerance to family violence, and upskilling of managers to lead change.

A newly recruited multidisciplinary project team supports partnerships between hospitals and specialty agencies to drive the change, with partners including Berry Street, Victoria Police, local councils, mental health, and Aboriginal and legal services.

The project has increased the confidence and skill of staff to enable sensitive enquiry, as well as creating an environment where patients feel safe to disclose family violence, and to ensure that all victim survivors of family violence receive appropriate care and referral.

The results show that new family violence alerts and secondary referrals have grown, as well as staff disclosures and access of family violence leave. This demonstrates the effectiveness of this whole-of-organisation approach to addressing family violence and reducing harm.

Northern Health also gained White Ribbon accreditation in March 2018, and is only the second hospital in the state to achieve this status.

“We are very proud of Ros Payne and the team and delighted with their vision and commitment in responding to family violence,” Northern Health Chief Operating Officer, Jane Poxon said.

Northern Health Research Week was proud to host Dr Stephen Duckett, as the morning session speaker on the topic Safer care saves money.

In front of the full lecture theatre, Dr Duckett emphasized how important it is to measure all complications that occur in hospitals and tracking them over time.

According to Dr Duckett, Australia could save $1.5 billion a year on health spending by improving the safety of patient care in hospitals.

“Safety is not just an issue for doctors – it’s a hospital and a system issue,” he said.

Dr Duckett also touched on the accreditation system, as he feels Australia’s hospital accreditation system should be modified.

“The accreditation system should be moved from an event which happens once every few years, to something which embeds the existing improvement process in the hospital,” he said.

Dr Duckett added that studies show public reporting is associated with better hospital outcomes, as it makes hospitals change as a result of the visibility to the community.

Learning from other hospitals and collaboration is something Dr Duckett strongly encourages and feels that “when we are doing something good, we should share it with others”.

One of the examples was Ian Brand, Chief Executive Officer of our predecessor hospital PANCH, who was focused on the hospital being the best at the time.  He looked at other hospitals with best practice and sent a team out to learn from what they were doing best.

“If we work in a collaborative ideology, we should be comfortable about people learning from us,” he added.

To hear more about today’s topic, please see the video below:

Featured Image: Jennifer Williams, Board Chair; Dr Stephen Duckett; Jane Poxon, Acting Chief Executive Northern Health

Today marks National Emergency Nurses Day, an opportunity for Northern Health to honour the commitment and hard work of our nurses in Victoria’s busiest emergency department.

As part of the celebrations, the Emergency Department launched their new motto – ‘we are a family caring for our community’ – a department-wide initiative, which underpins the team approach our nurses adopt to provide the best care in a high pressure environment.

Northern Health experienced a 7.9 percent increase in emergency presentations in the last financial year, with 99,400 presentations and 28,800 ambulance arrivals.

For the last 12 months, Northern Health has sustained a 95 percent rate of ambulances offloaded within 40 minutes, making our performance now the best in the state.

Janice Fernandes, Nurse Unit Manager Emergency Department, explains the importance of celebrating our nurses.

“We are the busiest in the state, and to be able to meet the demands of our patients, families and the community in a timely manner can be challenging.”

“October is a time to thank all Emergency Department nurses for their resilience and service they provide,” she said.

Janice adds that even though her role is both physically and mentally demanding, she enjoys mentoring staff and having the ability to change people’s lives.

“We are here to serve our patients and their families, and be able to make a difference to our community,” she said.

Emergency Nurse, Tyson Mcleod, was pleased the emergency staff are being recognised for their hard work.

“It’s quite a demanding job and you’ve got a lot of responsibility, so just to be recognised for that is a reward in itself,” he said.

Jane Poxon, Acting Chief Executive, expressed her gratitude to Northern Health’s Emergency Nurses – “thank you to everyone on the team for your dedication  and commitment to your patients and families within our community. It’s very much appreciated,” she said.

“Every time I come into the department, even though everyone is very busy, all staff are always welcoming and willing to assist. I am very proud to be working with a great team,” she added.