Message from the Acting Executive Director

Oh, what a NIGHT!

We had a fantastic night at the 2023 Metro North Research Awards, which was CKW’s most successful Research Awards yet!

Dr Mahesh Ramanan won the Research Support Award for his exceptional leadership, mentorship, capacity building and supportive personal approach, embedding a culture of excellence in intensive care research.

And the Integrated Children’s Care Collaborative (ICCC) won the Complex Health Challenges Award for their pioneering cost-effective integrated care solutions for children with chronic non-complex medical conditions. Congratulations to Dr Thuy Frakking, Dr Lisa Kane, Annabelle Marazzo, Susan McCormick, Seiji Humphries, Alison Burmeister and Anne Padayachee.

This was the first time CKW staff have won awards at this event. The recognition is a testimony to our commitment to growing research excellence to improve healthcare outcomes for our community. I’m truly pleased to see our research growth and successes, noting that both teams received support from our partner, The Common Good.

Congratulations to the recipients of the awards.

Satellite Hospital first staff barbecue

On Monday, the Caboolture Satellite Hospital team held their first staff barbecue, which was part of WorkSafe Month!

Ricky and Mairi from Metro North Health and Safety came to visit with various competitions and prizes for staff to enter while they enjoyed lunch.

Staff from Facilities, the Minor Injuries and Illness Centre, Mental Health, Oral Health and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services enjoyed the opportunity for some fresh air and a quick chat.

Planning is well underway for the next Caboolture Satellite Hospital staff event – a shared lunch to celebrate Melbourne Cup!

I love Melbourne Cup.  I am certainly no punter and my bets are always based on the colour the jockey is wearing or the name of the horse but I love it.

It is an interesting conundrum actually….my house backs onto a racecourse so we see the races regularly and watch horses train in the morning…I love it, but neither my husband nor I are good at picking the winners!

CKW Enterprise Scheduling Management (ESM) go-live

A big thank-you and congratulations for everyone’s commitment and hard work in moving from HBCIS APP to Enterprise Scheduling Management (ESM) outpatient appointment scheduling. This coming Monday (6 November) marks another milestone as we move from go-live support into HyperCare.

While there is always an adjustment period when transitioning to using a new system, the feedback I have received about our shift to ESM from both CKW staff and our Digital Metro North colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive.

If you do require any assistance with ESM during the HyperCare period, reach out to a Super User.

The CKW ESM Site Support Specialists can be contacted via email for support as required: Cab-HIS-Health-Informatics@health.qld.gov.au

For any issues that require further escalation, please log a job with IT Support or call the Digital Command Centre on 1800 921 342.

This is a great photo of the Caboolture Hospital staff and members of the ESM Project support team, who have done such as great job over the past few months. Well done, everyone!

Q-Flow rollout rescheduled to early next year

The Q-Flow go live at Caboolture Hospital has been rescheduled until early in 2024 with new dates scheduled. The Specialist Outpatient Department will go live on Monday 5 February 2024 and Allied Health will go live the following week on Monday 12 February 2024.

The rescheduled timeframe allows staff the opportunity to focus on completing training for Q-Flow via TMS. Completing training is mandatory to receive access to the system prior to go-live in the New Year. Find the training you need to complete.

If you have any questions, please contact the Metro North Q-Flow team via email at MNHHS-QuickFlow@health.qld.gov.au.

Occupational Violence Prevention Forum

I’m encouraging everyone to attend the Metro North Occupational Violence Prevention Forum. It will be held on Thursday (9 November) at Eatons Hill Hotel.

I would like to see as many staff from CKW attend – particularly our Food Services and Operational Services teams. This is a great opportunity to Metro North Health a safer place to work.

Caboolture Hospital Children’s ward redevelopment taking shape

Have you been to the children’s ward recently? The first stage of the redevelopment is complete.

Doesn’t it look great! From left to right is the front desk, children’s playroom and staff room.

This not part of CHRP – it’s a separate project, with thanks to The Common Good and Caboolture Hospital Auxiliary. Thanks so much for your ongoing support!

New sexual assault forensic examination clinician support line

Queensland Health has simplified its phone support service for clinicians seeking help with adult and older adolescent (14 years and above) sexual assault examinations.

The new dedicated phone number is (07) 3722 1321. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

You can call this number to discuss urgent patient or examination procedure concerns with the on-call forensic physician.

For non-urgent examination queries, continue to email ForensicPhysician@health.qld.gov.au

If you’re a nurse interested in obtaining a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) qualification, register your interest.

Please use designated car parks

A reminder that Metro North Health staff should not park at the private medical hub (former childcare centre) or the Woolworths shopping centre car parks across the road.

The medical hub car park has been completely full recently mornings prior to opening, which has caused considerable problems for patients.

The car park team has also noticed a large increase of people parking in drains just outside hospital grounds. We all know how quickly they can fill with fast-moving water, particularly during storm season.

I appreciate the introduction of paid parking has prompted many of these changes, but we are all here to care for our community, which includes staff not taking car parking spaces provided for patients, visitors and our neighbours. Thank you for your cooperation.

What a compliment!

I always enjoy reading compliments from the community talking about the compassionate care they received. A very special one from a patient at Caboolture Satellite Hospital came across my desk this week and I really wanted to share parts of it with everyone:

“The hospital is actually pleasant to be in, the process was easy. It wasn’t such a clinical bright white exhausting experience… it was comfortable and the staff were kind,” the patient wrote.

“The nursing staff were attentive, kind, respectful, checked in constantly, quick to supply medications and treatments. They were easy to talk to and helpful.

“I came home and felt as if I’d been admitted into a private hospital – it almost felt ‘business class’…

“Not for a second did I just feel like a number taking up a bed they wish they could get rid of to get the next person in.

“Thanks to everyone at the Caboolture Satellite Hospital… you’re doing amazing.

“This felt truly what our healthcare system should feel like. Proud to have this clinic and this team servicing our community.”

Very well done to the Caboolture Satellite Hospital team. Such great feedback!
EMR lockout for IWFM rollout

Due to IWFM rollout, there will be a lockout period for processing of employee movement requests (EMRs) in MyHR from Monday (6 November) to next Monday (13 November).

If you have staff onboarding in the next month with outstanding EMRs that are not yet processed, I highly recommend that these are actioned today as a priority this week.

This is particularly important for staff onboarding for new services in the new Clinical Services building.

Metro North Staff Excellence Awards

The Metro North Staff Excellence Awards are coming up soon. I see amazing work and see and hear of amazing individuals every single day and I would love to see many CKW nominations and hopefully a few winners at the awards night.

Please take some time to nominate a colleague, a team, or an initiative that you think is worthy.

I would also highly recommend you attend the awards night if you are able. It is always a wonderful evening and given it is the end of the year it may be nice to celebrate all your hard work with your teams.  I hope to see you there!

Finally,

Happy Friday to everyone. What a big week.

I presented to the Metro North Board this week and they were seemingly very impressed with all the work that we have been doing.

In particular, in the Safety and Quality area and Patient Flow but please know that all of your hard work was showcased and the Board appreciated meeting with many of you at the Birthday Cake cutting.

I know that sometimes that KPIs or performance metrics can be a little overwhelming. However, please remember at the end of every indicator is a patient, their family or a staff member.

Keep up the great work team CKW and have a wonderful weekend.

Stay safe,

Alanna.