Adj Prof Jackie Hanson, Chief Executive
This week I had the pleasure of visiting Brighton Health Campus on Monday for a Listening Post. Thank you for all the staff who came to have a chat, it is always very informative. Thanks to Ronnie who also gave me a campus tour on his RAPTOR!
I also attended Brighton’s Workforce Reform Roadshow on Tuesday. These roadshows outline how our health service plans to address workload demands and global shortages of healthcare workers. There are more roadshows being held next week at STARS, RBWH and TPCH. See the schedule for more details.
I enjoyed visiting Caboolture Hospital as well this week to participate in the 30th birthday celebrations. I hope everyone has had a great time over the past month.
On Wednesday I attended the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Institute Community Forum to hear how world-leading research being conducted at Metro North is translating to better clinical outcomes. Thank you to everyone who attended.
Charlie’s Week
This week TPCH celebrated Charlie’s Week, including fun staff events, competitions and the Research Hour of Power. The Staff Excellence Awards were also held during the week – congratulations to all the winners. On Wednesday, The Common Good held their annual Giving Day event, raising over $150,000 which is a wonderful result. The funds raised will support new equipment, programs and projects for sick and injured kids.
Post-operative Discharge Service
STARS is piloting a new Post-operative Discharge Support Service (PODSS), a telehealth pathway for patients who are discharged and have post-operative concerns or questions.
The aim of PODSS is to improve patient access to care following their procedure and avoid representations to Metro North Emergency Departments. The feedback from patients has been very positive. The service will be trialled until the end of December.
Recognising Operational Services staff
Throughout October we have been celebrating the work of our many operational staff across Metro North. This week, it’s Selina Jones from Caboolture Hospital and Linda Chapman from Gannet House.
Selina Jones – Operations Services and Patient Support Officer, Caboolture HospitalWorking in a busy Emergency Department offers Selina a varied and exciting work life, which she describes as ‘exactly her cup of tea’.Selina’s role involves cleaning and infection control as well as taking patients to and from MRIs and imaging or wheeling them to their car when discharged.“Working with a great team, and helping patients when they most need it, gives me great satisfaction. I have lots of nice work experiences, but my favourites are when I help to make patients feel safe and secure,” said Selina.“When I finish my day at work and go home to my family and our peaceful country home, I’m really proud knowing that I made a difference in someone’s life today – it’s a job that I would recommend to anyone.”
Linda Chapman – Patient Support Officer, Gannet HouseIt is no wonder that Patient Support Officer Linda Chapman loves her job when she has the privilege of working with our aged care residents at Gannet House.“I have a great relationship with the residents as I go into their room every day to clean and keep it tidy. You build up a really strong relationship with the residents, which is really lovely and very special.”Linda has spent around five years at Brighton Health Campus, Cooinda House and the Halwyn Centre performing patient handling and cleaning duties.She recently joined the team at Gannet House, a residential aged care facility located on the Moreton Bay foreshore at Brighton, and she can’t be happier.“The staff here are so friendly and they are always willing to help. We look out for each other.”
Hand hygiene meme competition
Hand hygiene is one of the most simple but effective things we can all do to reduce illness and improve outcomes. We are currently developing a Metro North wide hand hygiene campaign to supplement local activities. I’ve heard there are a lot of hand hygiene memes being used across the health service and I’ve love to see them. Send me your best hand hygiene memes by Friday 10 November and the best one will win a pizza party for the winning team.
Frocktober
Today my office is celebrating Frocktober with a morning tea to help raise money for ovarian cancer research. We had special guest and local Frocktober campaigner Graham Winbank with us. For the past three years Graham has been wearing dresses throughout October in honour of his wife, even while doing his work as a NUM at Caboolture. He’s already raised more than $57,000 this year to support the cause.
Kind regards,
Jackie.