‘It takes a village to raise a child’, goes the African proverb, which nicely describes the Koori Maternity Service Program at Northern Health. The program pairs babies from families unable to be with their baby, with an aunt or guardian figure from the Aboriginal community.

Donna Wright, Gunditjmara woman, was at work when she received a call asking if she could come to the Northern Hospital Epping. Donna knows the Northern Hospital well, as more than one of her grandchildren were born here, with another on the way.

Yet it wasn’t her experience as a grandmother or her wisdom as an Aboriginal Elder the hospital was seeking. They needed Donna to simply cuddle the baby she is pictured with. She readily agreed.

The business of holding babies as much as possible, or what doctors and parents are increasingly referring to as ‘kangaroo care’, can have real developmental benefits. Babies who receive constant cuddling tend to sleep better, manage stress more easily and exhibit better autonomic functions such as heart rate. It also aids the weight gain and social development of the cuddled babies.

The cuddling program at Northern Health takes on an added significance to Koori mothers. The mums are comforted knowing their child is in the care of someone they look up to and respect in their community, states Jo Quinn – Aboriginal Health Worker, Koori Maternity Service, who runs the program at Northern Health.

“The program, which is probably the first of its kind in Victoria, offers a culturally safe space for Koori mums, respecting their customs and traditions and in turn, providing the comfort and reassurance they need at this critical stage of motherhood,” says Jo.

“The Koori Maternity Service serves as a good example of the emphasis on ‘Trust’ Northern Health places, in its mission to provide Trusted Care to the communities in the north,” says Deb Bourne, General Manager – Access, Women’s, Children’s and Surgical Inpatient and Director Nursing, Northern Hospital.

The month of November is all about highlighting men’s health through the ‘Movember’ movement.

The Movember initiative aims to raise awareness and make a difference in men’s health, particularly addressing prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention.

Prostate cancer rates are expected to double in the next 15 years, while testicular cancer rates have already doubled in the last 50.

Poor mental health also leads to half a million men taking their own life every year – three quarters of all suicides are men.

Movember Australia says we need to come together to face this issue and “stop men dying too young”.

Northern Health has chosen to support the cause by creating their own Movember group.

Social Work Clinical Leader and Movember group organiser, Juan Alhucema, said, “as some men are hair-growth challenged, we have extended the idea of growing a moustache to changing your facial appearance. Participants can choose to either cut, grow, shave or dye their hair for the month of November.”

“Two staff members have already chosen to cut their ponytails off should they receive over $1,000 in donations,” he added.

Northern Health already have excellent representation across disciplines who have chosen to participate, including social work, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

To support and make a donation to Northern Health’s group, click here – our group’s name is Noh-vember.

It’s not too late to join! If you’re interested in joining the cause, please email Juan Alhucema (Juan.Alhucema@nh.org.au) – they are also accepting pledges for the ponytail chop!

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.