Medtasker has been implemented across key areas of Northern Hospital Epping and Broadmeadows since mid-2018 – and is proving to be an effective clinical communication tool for staff.

Medtasker was first piloted in our organisation in the pharmacy department in April 2017.

This lead to the ‘Medtasker at Night’ project, which launched 21 February this year at Northern Hospital Epping and Broadmeadows Hospital.

The staff during night shifts (20:00 – 08:00) including nurses, doctors, access/hospital coordinators and Northern Hospital Epping switchboard operators used Medtasker for clinical communication regarding routine tasks i.e. not pre-MET or MET calls.

The emergency department, ICU and psychiatric wards were not included and continued to use pagers.

The move to 24/7 operation commenced on 23 May 2018 at Broadmeadows Hospital, followed by Northern Hospital Epping on 21 June, with the same parameters and exclusions as Medtasker at Night.

Dr Kristen Pearson and Dr Lachlan Hayes recently attended the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Conference, where they presented a poster on ‘Communicating Safely in Hospitals with Medtasker’.

Their poster highlights the reason why Northern Health chose Medtasker, and the benefits the task management application has already provided to our organisation since the recent launch. Their presentation was well received.

Sandy Ayoub, Medtasker Project Officer, said feedback has been great.

“It has helped ‘task recipients’ such as doctors and pharmacists prioritise their tasks more efficiently as well as allowed clinicians to share tasks amongst each other to balance workload.”

Medtasker provides superior traceability and transparency of tasks when compared to the paging system, hence, helping ‘task senders’ such as nurses track the progress of their sent tasks.

“Medtasker is sparking the interest of other organisations looking to improve their clinical communications,” Sandy said.

Currently, there are 20 other organisations in conversation with Nimblic, the company powering Medtasker.

The ‘Reliable Operating Room Research Project’ kicks off at Northern Hospital Epping this week.

In partnership with the University of Melbourne – School of Computing and Information Systems, the new project enables Northern Health to study the activities of our staff in the operating room.

Gabriele Marini, PhD candidate from the University of Melbourne, said the system is designed to help understand how people are moving within the building, monitoring not just the staff members, but also the patients and providing crucial information on the entire flow.

“From the moment they enter the building, they will be given a tag, which is a Bluetooth beacon. This allows us to see the flow – where they get stuck, see if there are any delays, and follow their journey from reception, to the ward and surgery, until the moment they leave,” he said.

The project is now in the pilot phase with a sample of staff testing the BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon technology, with sensor boxes deployed in areas throughout the operating room environment. Staff have been given a small tag to carry, which directly communicates with the boxes.

“By analysing the signals from the beacons, we can infer the room in which a particular person was at a particular time,” Gabriele explained.

Professor Vassilis Kostakos from the University of Melbourne explained that ultimately, the project will generate aggregate statistics regarding the flow of staff and patients in and out of the operating room, which can be used to characterise the workflows.

Bill Shearer, Anaesthetist and Executive Director Transformation Quality & Safety, said the research aims to improve the efficiency and experience in the operating room, for patients and staff alike.

“The metrics will allow us to model, analyse and interpret the systemic actions taking place in our operating room,” he said.

After the initial testing phase, the technology will also be rolled out to tracking patient movements.

Recently, a diverse group of clinicians came together to hear from Stephanie and Chris O’Connor on their recent medical obstetric experience at Northern Health as part of an ‘Ideas Lab’ session.

Baby Aubrey was born in early May and due to a cardiac condition — shared by mum and bub — spent a fortnight with us in our Special Care Nursery, along with Stephanie in our Intensive Care Unit.

The physical separation of Stephanie and Aubrey is unique and complex; mum needing cardiac monitoring in an adult environment and baby in the neonatal setting. The staff in both areas regularly coordinated time for mum and baby to be together, a physical distance of some 110 metres.

Stephanie and Chris shared their unique story from antenatal care to being discharged, followed-up by domiciliary.

“We are really happy to have been part of this,” Stephanie says.

“We want our experience to help improve the service, as we’re planning to come back to Northern Health for baby number two!”

The O’Connors’ experience is a rich source of first-hand knowledge, generously shared, and their generosity will contribute greatly to the ‘Staying Well in Pregnancy’ clinical community.

Bill Shearer, Executive Director of Quality Safety and Transformation, and the lead for our High Reliability Organisation transformation says, “their story — and our capacity to learn from it — is key in all healthcare quality improvement endeavours.”

“Our delivery of a High Reliability Organisation relies on it.”

 

Photograph left to right

Front: Chris & Stephanie O’Connor with baby Aubrey

Rear: Leonie Henderson, Quality Coordinator & Clare McCarthy, Project Manager

Recently, Northern Health celebrated the 2018 Staff Length of Service Awards, acknowledging 10 years of service right through to 45 years.

Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, was delighted to present the awards to such committed and devoted staff.

“One of the best things about Northern Health is our staff and all of you who have been here to see Northern Health grow, develop and become the key provider of trusted care in Melbourne’s north,” he said.

“Whether you work in a clinical or support role – you all contribute to patient care.”

Clinical Specialist, Swee Khor, has been with Northern Health for 40 years, since the early days of PANCH.

“Northern Health is a happy place to work and I find my job very rewarding,” she said.

Our longest serving staff member, Patient Services Assistant, Liuba Vulic, has been with Northern Health for an incredible 45 years, and was one of the first staff members to work at what was previously known as Broadmeadows Health Service.

“I love working at Northern Health because it feels like a big extended family,” she said.

To view and download photos from the day, please click here.
(Photos will be available for download until 30 November 2018)

Recently, Broadmeadows Hospital celebrated their oldest dialysis patient turning 90.

Robert Langford commenced Haemodialysis in 2008 and has been dialysing with the Broadmeadows Hospital Unit for approximately 10 years.

Given the nickname of ‘Bob the Builder’ because of his love for working with wood, Robert enjoys making toy trains, building blocks and chopping boards.

Cheryl Rofe, Nurse Unit Manager, Renal Services at Broadmeadows Hospital, says everyone refers to Bob as the granddad of the unit.

“Bob has been with us for such a long time – he is considered family,” she says.

When Bob turned 90, the team at Broadmeadows decided they would throw him a party and make it a day to remember.

There were balloons, his long term dialysis friends and even a Bob the Builder cake to celebrate the occasion!

“I had the best day ever! Such loving and caring people,” Bob says.

“The dialysis team are excellent!”

The past year has been an outstanding success for Northern Health, and the Annual Meeting followed by the Open Board Meeting, was a great opportunity to hear more about the year’s achievements and to discuss strategies for the future.

Board Chair, Jennifer Williams AM, opened the Annual Meeting by commending Northern Health for the continued improvement of quality and access to services during a period of sustained increase in demand.

Our Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, highlighted that Northern Health’s services are underpinned by our commitment to patient safety and improving the patient experience. Over the last three years, we have significantly improved access to emergency, elective surgery and outpatient care, with continual growth in the number of patients we serve each year.

Our emergency department at Northern Hospital Epping continues to be the busiest in Victoria, providing care to almost 100,000 patients in the last year.

It was acknowledged that these wonderful achievements wouldn’t be possible without the dedicated efforts and skills of our wonderful staff and volunteers. Northern Health employs over 5,000 staff, 70% of whom live in our catchment area and reflect the rich diversity of our community.

The Open Board Meeting commenced with a discussion about the patient experience, led by Jodie Ashworth – Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer. The approach included challenging us to change our mindset from, “what’s the matter?” to “’what matters to you?”

The meeting was also an opportunity to engage with staff and consumers about our plans for the future, with an initial discussion about our new strategic plan, led by Simon Keating –  Chief Strategy, Business and Development  Officer.

Valuable feedback given at the Open Board Meeting was a great way to understand what really matters to our patients and our community, so we can continue to provide trusted care, now and into the future.

This week, Cancer Council Victoria launched a new campaign raising awareness about the link between sugary drinks and obesity, as well as certain cancers.

A shocking advert showing toxic fat inside a patient’s body was featured as part of the campaign video.

Amy Johns, Northern Health Clinical Dietician, says there are a large number of overweight and obese clients seen at Craigieburn Health Service every day.

“I complete one-to-one individualised nutrition counselling sessions and find that sugar-sweetened beverages make up a large part of people’s diets nowadays,” she says.

“These sugars are hidden in drinks and are high in kilojoules (i.e. calories) which lead to weight gain and obesity.”

If you consume one can of soft drink every day for a year, it is estimated you will gain approximately 6.75 kilograms.

The rise in sugary drink consumption, especially amongst children, has led staff at Craigieburn Health Service to take action, creating their own ‘Rethink your drink’ display.

The visual display shows different soft drinks and the amount of sugar they contain in clear bags.

“A 600mL bottle of regular Coca Cola, for example, contains 16 teaspoons of sugar. You wouldn’t eat 16 teaspoons of sugar, so why would you drink it?” Amy says.

The eye-opening display is receiving great feedback from staff and parents.

“If you don’t see the sugar visually like that, you just don’t know it’s there!”

Welcome to Paediatric Week – where we celebrate the paediatric population within our community and those presenting to Northern Health.

The week will focus on education and awareness amongst our dynamic nursing staff who look after children across several departments.

Educational sessions and skill stations will be held at Northern Hospital Epping, showcasing the diversity of paediatrics within Northern Health and ways to improve and promote healthcare delivery.

Pamela Perera, Paediatric Clinical Nurse Educator, encourages all staff with an interest in paediatric nursing to attend.

“These sessions will help staff to build knowledge and exposure in the management of our paediatric patients,” she says.

Themed days will also run throughout the week encouraging all departments to get involved and embrace their inner child. Yesterday, staff marked the occasion by having a crazy hair day.

Pamela says the paediatric nursing educating team assists in professional development of our nurses across Northern Health, to provide excellence in paediatric care.

“Collaboration with education teams and departments has demonstrated active participation in paediatrics, and has ultimately standardised the care provided across our organisation,” she says.

We encourage staff to celebrate the world of paediatrics, and in the wise words of Dr Suess – “be kind to your small person friends.”

Please click here for the full event schedule.