Today is World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day (COPD)​ and this year we are taking the opportunity to encourage people to reach out to their health professionals for support and assistance to manage their illness and improve their wellbeing.

Awareness and investigation of new or ongoing respiratory symptoms, such as persistent cough, wheeze, or shortness of breath can lead to early diagnosis and treatments for a range of respiratory diseases. Awareness and understanding of the treatments prescribed is also important, with the respiratory department promoting evidence based therapy, including the correct use of inhaled medications or ‘puffers’.

Maureen Goodwin, Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant, explained that one way we can assist our respiratory patients is to ensure they are taking their inhaled medications correctly. Inhalers or ‘puffers’ are common treatments in COPD and asthma, and with many different devices available, the use of puffers can be quite confusing for patients.

“Inhalers can fall into two main categories – preventers and relievers. It is important in asthma and COPD that preventers are taken regularly every day even if you feel well. Relievers are the inhalers which can be used to provide immediate relief when patients experience shortness of breath or other symptoms such as wheeze and cough,” she said.

With the combination of spring allergy season and Melbourne’s unseasonable weather, Northern Health’s respiratory team have seen many patients experiencing increased respiratory symptoms, requiring use of reliever puffers.

“To ensure the inhaled medications reach the smallest airways of the lungs, we recommend the use of a spacer and recommend the ‘1 puff 4 breath technique’. This method is a ‘one size fits all’  technique which suits all ages and ability from paediatrics to elderly, including routine or emergency use. This method can even provide a calming effect for patients who are becoming anxious during an acute attack,” Maureen said.

Please see a short demonstration below on how we promote the use of puffer and spacer at Northern Health.

The following websites offer a range of resources and support services for patients and health professionals: Lung Foundation Australia, Asthma Australia, National Asthma Council.

Featured image (left to right): Hanwen Tan, Registered Nurse; Darrin Stirling, Patient; Maureen Goodwin, Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant

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, incorporating these learnings into the new portal, which launches at 7 am tomorrow.

Staff who were given a preview of the new portal at demonstrations across our sites have been positive in their feedback.

“I think it adds a lot of value to the existing portal,” says Natasha Knapic, Associate Nurse Unit Manager, Emergency Department.

“It has added functionality that I find really useful,” she added.

“It’s going to have a really positive impact on communications and patient care,” says Rachel Evans, Associate Director, Nutrition and Dietetics.

“The new portal connects with several key patient systems and provides better visibility on current status of patients and assists with discharge planning,” says Adam King, Director Decision Support, who has been closely involved in the rebuild of the portal.

“We recognise that there are a few changes in workflows for staff and that in the short term it will take a bit of getting used to, but medium term the aim is that the new portal will help identify areas of patient journey that may be delaying their next step,” says Ed.

He adds, “It should also help reduce phone calls and increase transparency around patient flow, so teams on the wards can have more time released to care for patients.”

The new Bed Management Portal will continue to evolve to ensure it supports our health service requirements, so your feedback is important. Suggestions on how the portal can be improved can be logged via nh-decision-support@nh.org.au.

Picture shows Rowan Shield from the Decision Support team tracking the patient journey.

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 and Deliver, had everyone on the dance floor as they took guests back to their fondest 80’s tunes!

“Everyone got into the theme and really enjoyed reminiscing about the 80’s. I had an amazing night!” said Divisional Director for Surgical Services, Linda Romano.

Clinical Director of Paediatrics, David Tran, and Divisional Director of Surgery, Wanda Stelmach, were awarded best dressed of the night with their amazing 80’s inspired outfits.

Special guests, Northern Health patient, Umit Kursat, his wife Tulay and their family and friends joined us in support. Umit understands firsthand how important defibrillators are, having suffered a cardiac arrest in October this year and being rushed to Northern Hospital for lifesaving treatment. Hear from him and his wife in the below video.

Northern Health Foundation Director, Yvonne Amos, said “I would like to thank our major sponsors, prize partners and all those who attended the Annual Dinner. I am sure you will agree the evening was vibrant and our trip back to the 80’s was embraced by all who attended.”

“Having Umit and Tulay Kursat share their personal journey with us was courageous and highlighted for our guests the importance of defibrillators when someone suffers a cardiac arrest. The Foundation team are proud to announce $95,000 was raised from the event in support of our defibrillator campaign,” Yvonne added.

Thank you to all of our very generous major sponsors, Casa D’Abruzzo Club, ISS Facility Services, 1ALP, Healthcare Imaging Services, ALH Group, Drums Hotel, Riverlee and Turosi Food Solutions Group for their support.

A special thank you to staff members involved in the opening surprise flash mob!

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 receive feedback from the audience regarding the direction of his work and future plans.

“In this presentation I will describe how we have approached our collaboration with hospitals in Melbourne, and will discuss how we use our expertise in Ubiquitous Computing and user-centred design to solve problems that hospitals have. Northern Health has been an invaluable partner in this work, by supporting us through their expertise, and providing us access and resources to conduct this research.”

Vassilis is a Professor of Human Computer Interaction in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on how to model user behaviour based on sensor data, and how to develop technologies that better understand and better respond to humans. His work combines user-centred design, machine learning, and mobile & smartphone-based technologies.

He has previously led projects on pedestrian mobility on city-scale, smartphone software for sensing users’ lifestyles, and large-scale analysis of social media. His main expertise is in smartphone sensing, context-aware computing, and behaviour modelling.

“The Smart Hospital Living Lab resonates strongly with me and the Staying Well Program (SWP) that we have initiated here at Northern Health. The Staying Well Program will address the phenomenon of high risk patients who present frequently to hospital. This will require a new generation of service models which better meet patients’ needs at home and in local communities, and the Smart Hospital Living Lab offers a lot of learnings for us,” says Professor Don Campbell, Service Director for the SWP at Northern Health.

“I would highly recommend attending the presentation to better understand how machine learning, including artificial intelligence and user-centred design, is helping meet patients’ needs,” adds Don.

The Research Grand Round with Professor Vassilis Kostakos on the subject of The Smart Hospital Living Lab will be held at Lecture Theatre 1 – Level 1, NCHER Building on Tuesday 19 November 2019 at 12.30 pm.

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 stories and data on important quality and safety indicators.

As an organisation, we have a strong focus on engaging with our community to understand their cultural and health care needs, and we should be proud of our efforts to improve the quality and safety of the care we provide.

I would like to thank Maree Glynn, Paula Murray and all the staff who assisted with and contributed to this report. I encourage you to read about our achievements in the 2018-19 Quality Account.

Annual Meeting and Open Access Board Meeting

On Thursday, 28 November, Northern Health will hold our Annual Meeting and Open Access Board Meeting from 12 pm.

During our Annual Meeting, the board and executive will present on financial and operational milestones and celebrate our successes over the past 12 months.

At our Open Access Board Meeting we will also formally launch our Reconciliation Action Plan, which will provide us with a framework to support the national reconciliation movement.  We will also discuss how we can better engage consumers in the care they receive.

I invite you to attend these meetings, please click here for more information and to RSVP.

Hope you have a good week ahead.

Siva Sivarajah

Chief Executive

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 things like using warm compresses during labour and birth, and making sure we are using a hands-on technique and that we have a consistent practice, as well as involving the women in this journey and providing education for staff,” Yvonne explained.

The project started in August this year and will last for a full year. During three learning sessions, all organisations involved come together, discuss progress and get tips from Safer Care Victoria on how to overcome roadblocks.

“It’s a good day to think outside of the box and brainstorm ideas with other organisations. These workshops give more information on how to implement bundles of care and how to collect the data – as we need the data to know how we are doing and how to get the staff engaged,” Yvonne said.

Abby is part of the ‘Safer Baby’ collaborative which aims to reduce the number of still born babies by 30 per cent after 28 weeks, by 2020.

“With this project, we are working on implementing different strategies to minimise risk – they include helping women quit smoking, detecting fetal growth restriction or small babies, advertising sleeping on the side in the third trimester and reporting decreased fetal movements and coming into hospital to be assessed,” Abby explained.

Through the collaboration with 30 hospitals, the initiative aims to establish similar processes of care across Victoria.

“No matter where you go for your care, you get consistent and effective care that is based on best practice. We are trying to get every woman empowered to be able to reduce the risk of still birth, and consistently have education and support from the hospital. That is part of our High Reliability – Trusted Care transformation,” Abby said.

Both Yvonne and Abby agree these workshops are an opportunity for all hospitals to come together and compare how the projects look in each place and how they’ve been getting the word out to women. Plans for the future include working on strategies to make these projects sustainable and share improvements, resources and ideas.

Featured image (left to right): Northern Health representatives at the workshop – Katie Castles, Yvonne Chan, Abby Monaghan and Debra Bourne.

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 has moved on and now works only occasionally at Northern Hospital as a casual nurse, Stella has continued to bake cupcakes for our staff as she knows how challenging their work can be and admires them immensely.

Stella says she bakes the cupcakes as a way of saying thank you for all they do.

Associate Nurse Unit Manager, Julia Fotiadis said, “Most days are challenging in the emergency department so when Stella brings in cupcakes it brightens so many of our days.”

Stella said, “If they can come up here, have a coffee or tea and a cupcake, just decompress – that’s what it’s about,” Stella said.

“I get a kick out of it and I know they work hard – why wouldn’t you want to help?” Stella added.

On Grand Final Eve, Stella brought in over seven dozen Ferrero Rocher cupcakes for the afternoon and night shift staff.

   

While Gen was overseas, some of her Northern Hospital nursing friends would even drop in and see Stella and help her with the baking of the cupcakes.

Stella bakes an assortment of different flavours and themed decorations, and goes to great lengths to decorate the cakes. She drops them in on a number of special days including Easter, Christmas in July and Halloween.

Aside from baking for ED staff, Stella also bakes cakes for the volunteer cake stalls at Northern Hospital Epping. Staff, patients and visitors come up to the stall to admire her creations and money raised from the stalls go to Northern Health Foundation.

Emergency Department Nurse Unit Manager, Janice Fernandes, said, “Stella is famous in our department!”

Featured Image (left to right): Julia Fotiadis (Associate Nurse Unit Manager), Janice Fernandes (Nurse Unit Manager), Stella Gibbons, Teneille Holland (Associate Nurse Unit Manager)

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 a young totally blind man. He provided valuable insights on how we can engage sensitively with people with such profound disabilities and traumatic pasts,” he said.

Northern Health HMO, Dr Batool Albatat, spoke openly about her experiences as an asylum seeker from Iraq, of arriving in Australia as a child, with only part of her family.

“None spoke any English when they arrived. While she experienced discrimination at first, Batool now enjoys the multiculturalism and diversity of Northern Health,” Jason added.

The Northern Health Refugee and Asylum Seeker Working Group was proud to have organised the study day.

“This day was aimed at providing valuable insights into the personal journeys of refugees and asylum seekers, strengthening our partnerships with other refugee support agencies, and improving services and outcomes for this very vulnerable community,” Jason added.

DPV Health and AMES worker Natalie Henry, also a working group member, said the study day was a “great opportunity to explore and discuss the varied challenges faced by different refugees and asylum seekers, and to appreciate the diversity that is present in the northern catchment”.

Melbourne’s north has become home to many refugees and asylum seekers over the past 10 years. The City of Hume, in particular, receives the largest settlement of refugees than any other municipality in Victoria, with over 664 people moving to the local government area during the 2018-19 year.