Code Surge, developed in June this year, is Northern Health’s process for solving periods of peak demand in our Emergency Department.

Overcapacity in the emergency department can be a safety and quality issue and impacts both the patients waiting for a bed and those in the waiting room waiting to be seen. To address this, Northern Health developed a new code called Code Surge.

According to Debra Bourne, Divisional Director, this new initiative is unique to Northern Health.

“Having too many people in the ED impacts both patients and staff. It increases the waiting times, the length of stay and research has shown that it increases the clinical risk to the patients,” she said.

Northern identified that in situations where ED has overcapacity, an organisation wide response is required. The new Code Surge, just like Code Stroke or Code Blue is alerted throughout the organisation.

“Doctors get alerted through the paging system and we send SMS and e-mail notifications to other senior staff within the health service. From this, there are actions that each person and group needs to take,” Debra added.

Code Surge has been activated 10 times since its introduction and in the majority of occasions, the situation was resolved within 2 hours. This success is due to team work from all staff, both clinical and non-clinical.

In times of Code Surge, staff works extremely hard to ensure that our patients are cared for in the right place.

 

 

It’s Teddy Bear Hospital today at Northern, with our youngest community members and patients, together with Melbourne University medical students, checking up on their teddy bears.

The Teddy Bear Hospital is a unique educational program established and actively run by volunteer medical, nursing, physiotherapy, optometry and dentistry students of the University of Melbourne.

Northern Hospital hosts the Teddy Bear Hospital four times a year, with plan to expand next year with events at the Epping Plaza and the Aboriginal community in Thomastown.

Associate Professor Wei Qi Fan, Head of Neonatal Unit at Northern Hospital says that children often come stressed to hospital environments and the Teddy Bear Hospital relieves that stress by allowing kids to play with medical students and feel they can have fun in this environment.

“We help them relieve anxiety and stress and educate them in what to expect when they go and see a doctor. These events also help medical students, teaching them how to communicate with children of different ages,” she says.

Priya Croyal, a medical student from University of Melbourne says that this is a great way to get kids more comfortable around doctors and their equipment, as they can sometimes be frightening to kids.

“When kids are more familiar with health checks, in the form of a teddy bear, they’ll be less scared next time when they see a doctor,” she says.

Priya is currently in her third year of studies and is hoping to work at Northern Health soon.

“Northern is definitely going to be my number one choice to work at. I’m hoping they’ll have me next year,” she said.

 

 

Northern Celebrates, a month dedicated to Northern Health’s events, awards and celebrations kicks off with our Annual Dinner on October 6.

It’s time to get your colleagues, staff and family together, put on your dancing shoes and celebrate collective achievements of Northern Health.

During last year’s annual dinner, over $100,000 was raised for our Emergency Accommodation Relief Appeal, helping our Foundaton team build a home for families travelling long distances with loved ones receiving care in our Intensive Care Unit.

This year, the funds raised would be going to the Children’s Ward for the purchase of medical equipment and to improve the ward environment for children and their families.

Yvonne Amos, Northern Health Foundation Director says that Northern Health Annual Dinner, now in its 20th year, has raised over $2M to support the purchase of medical equipment across Northern Health, making a difference to the quality of care deliver within our community.

“Please join us this year to help in raising the vital funds needed for our Children’s Ward. Every ticket purchased, every dollar donated will help us reach our target of $120,000,” she said.

So grab your tickets and practise your best moves!

Where: Casa D’Abruzzo Club, Epping

When: October 6 2018, 6.30PM – 12AM

Entertainment: Comedian Michael Pope, with the show-stopping Baker Boys band

Meals: Three course dinner

Drinks: Wine, beer and soft drinks included

Price: Staff tickets are at the special price of $99 each or tables of 10 at $990

Click here to get your tickets and see you at the Annual Dinner 2018!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday 8 September, Northern Health Foundation Patron Bev Carman hosted the annual Northern Health Foundation Race Day at the Kilmore Racing Club.

As a long standing supporter of Northern Health, Bev is passionate about improving the health of her community and has a circle of dedicated supporters who assist in setting up the event.

140 guests were invited to wear their best race day attire and they didn’t disappoint. The room was filled to the brim with fascinators and fancy frocks.

Attendees included the Chairman, several members of the Foundation Board, our Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah and Executive Director of Public Affairs and Foundation, Andrew Williamson.

A great day was had by all and the event was well supported by Kilmore locals. We also can’t forget to mention the perfect spring weather for a day at the races.

This year, Race Day raised over $7,500, with funds going towards research grants at Northern Health.

Professor Peter Brooks, board member of the Northern Health Foundation, highlighted just how important research grants are.

“We’re at this fantastic track and this event is a great omen. If you want to invest in something, invest in research. If you invest $1 in research, you get $7 back into the community,” he said.

Thank you to major sponsors, Epping Plaza Hotel, A Little Birdie Told Me and John Molnar Legal Services.

Another big thank you to Bev Carman, the Northern Health Foundation team and volunteers, and all who attended the event!

Check out some of our stunning entries in our video!

“When someone asks you how you are, instead of the trite answer ‘fine how are you?’…stop, pause and reflect on how you are really.” – David Paterson, Pastoral Care, Northern Health.

Conversations on Mental Wellness continues tomorrow on R U OK DAY, with Dr Eric Levi speaking at NCHER at 8 am.

“This time the spotlight is turned on us, the Medical Community, on how we care for each other. Our patients deserve to be cared for by mentally and physically healthy clinicians, working in safe workplaces,” says Dr Levi.

In the afternoon at 2 pm at the same venue, Sonia Gangi speaks along with Jo Gibbs.

Sonia, a Registered Nurse and volunteer speaker for beyondblue, will share her personal experience of anxiety and encourage others to open up the conversation about mental health conditions in their workplace, and with family and friendship groups.

Sonia believes that creating a mentally healthy workplace is everyone’s responsibility.

“It starts with individuals building a positive culture where everyone feels supported and able to do their best work,” she said.

Jo has a lifelong career in healthcare and developed Treat, a mindfulness based self- care and recovery program for health care professionals that has successfully run at Alfred Health.

Jo will address the question, “how can healthcare professionals rebound and recover from stressors so that they don’t burn out or leave the profession they are committed to?”

Conversations on Mental Wellness is an important initiative to promote wellbeing, address mental health concerns and protect the mental health of Northern Health staff.

As Will Halpin, Director Occupational Health and Safety, said at the opening session, “it’s easy to forget in the caring profession, we sometimes need to take care of ourselves.”

Ladies and gentleman, we have the winners of our first Great Northern Bake Off!

Our award winners in each category have been announced, after our dedicated judges had the serious task of rewarding the ‘best of the best’.

Chief Legal Officer, Mr John Snowdon, said judging the bake off was an amazing experience – “the contestants had all gone to a huge amount of trouble to produce stunning results”.

“This was truly an occasion which brought the whole Northern Health family together!” he said.

Another of our esteemed judges, Emily Dawson, Director, Organisational Capability, said “I was so impressed with the quality of all of the entries – they were outstanding! The deciding factor was the quality, taste and effort that went into the winning cake, and the music took it to the next level”.

Our overall winners, the Anaesthesia Department, said their entry was a team effort led by Dr Michelle Chan.

“I expect the judges had a hard time deciding, and hope they are recovering from their sugar highs. It took Michelle and her team over five hours to create her multimedia presentation, but less than five minutes for our department to devour it”, said David Pescod, Deputy Director, Department Anaesthesia.

We present the awarded cakes in different categories and the overall winner below.

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all participants.

Check out some of our stunning entries in the video below!

 

Overall Winner: Department of Anaesthesia 

 

Winner: Relevant to Area – Unit I

 

• Highly Commended: Neonatal Unit, Pathology

 

 

Equal Winners: Originality – O&G Medical / HRO & Quality

 

 

• Highly Commended: Birth Suite

 

 

 

Winner: Appearance – Cardiac Cath Lab

 

• Highly Commended: Pharmacy

 

Winner: Texture – EMH / NPU

 

• Highly Commended: CDM

 

Winer: Taste – Nursing Workforce Unit 

 

• Highly Commended: Division of Medicine

 

Winner: Colour – Outpatients 

 

• Highly Commended: Children’s Unit

 

Winner: Technical Difficulty – Hand Therapy 

 

• Highly Commended: HITH

The Great Northern Bake Off has just kicked off – with a display of cakes and muffins any Master Baker would be jealous of – complete with visual and even sound effects!

Our staff’s efforts are definitely not going unnoticed, with Vinod Chellarm, Deputy Director Pharmacy, saying “the Hospital should maybe look at opening a bakery.”

Drew Aras, Associate Director of Research said, “our staff’s talents are lost in healthcare”, with Will Halpin, OHS and Wellbeing Associate Director, adding “they should all be on Master Chef!”

 

Our judges, Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, Chief Legal Officer John Snowdon, Director Organisational Capability, Emily Dawson and Board Directors, Peter McWilliam, along with Philip Bain, wearing R U OK t-shirts drew attention to our inaugural ‘Conversations on Mental Wellness’ week and the importance of having a conversation.

“It’s important to share the message of R U OK day, which is this Thursday. We are encouraging our staff to bring a plate to work on that day, have a conversation and ask each other R U OK?” Siva Sivarajah, our Chief Executive said.

Jodie Ashworth, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, and the organiser of this event, emphasized the importance of bringing staff together and taking care of our wellbeing.

“Wellbeing is sometimes about coming together and sharing simple things. The effort put in today’s bake off showcases how much care and pride our staff take in their work,” she said.