Message from the Executive Director

What a great week to travel around to see as many teams and staff as possible and get the opportunity to say thank you for so much inspirational work.

In the past few days, I have had the pleasure of visiting our teams and services at Kallangur Satellite Hospital, Aspley Community Health Centre, Cooinda House, Redcliffe Community Health Centre and Sandgate Dental Clinic.

During these visits it became very clear to me that there were some very special Easter bunnies out there who literally never stopped putting our patients first over the break.

Our Central Patient Intake Unit (CPIU), which facilitates referrals to Specialist Outpatient and Outpatient Allied Health Services at Metro North Health, worked through Easter to catch up on our incoming referrals.

Unfortunately, last week we experienced some statewide outages and slow internet speeds which impacted our network and key referral applications.

The CPIU team stood up through Easter and managed the situation so that there was minimal disruption to patient referral flow.

I was extremely proud to have had the chance to say thank you to the team who did their utmost to put our patients first.

Thank you CPIU – You are all truly amazing!

ieMR – Making a difference to the patient and clinical experience

Besides getting into some exercises of my own when I visited the Health Aging Assessment and Rehabilitation Team (HAART), I had a very complimentary discussion about the ieMR.

This feedback focussed on examples where having access to the most up-to-date patient record was making such a difference to the delivery of care.

And the compliments didn’t stop there:

“It is much better for the patient as they don’t have to repeat their story so many times.”

“It is more time efficient – you don’t have to scroll through charts to find a specific discipline entry as the discipline is stated in the note heading.”

“Autotexts are great and save time and guide the team on what the expectation is for documentation (e.g. Case Review notes; Comprehensive Care assessments).”

“You don’t have to run around looking for charts; you can write a note anytime when you have quick ten minutes – rather than trying to find charts.”

Let’s all play Active April Bingo!

During my visit to the Kallangur Satellite Hospital – I was give an important reminder that it was April No Falls month.

April No Falls is a national and international campaign to educate and raise awareness of falls prevention and help those at risk of falling to stay on their feet.

To make April No Falls more meaningful I encourage all COH staff and teams to take the Active April Challenge!

Get moving for Active April by ticking off the Active April Bingo activities listed. You can do most of them as a team and some you need to find someone else to do some with.

Visit to Cooinda and Oral Health

It was a joy to catch up with our Oral Health colleagues at Kallangur and Sandgate.

These shining stars treat hundreds of patients for specialist, orthodontist and general oral health concerns each month.

At Cooinda, I found out about a wonderful initiative where residents are making new pen pals with Humpy Bong State School students looking for a friend like Lizzy (picture right).

I also met a couple of the residents who had immersed themselves in a Ladies Thursday Virtual Reality Mediation Sessions.

For resident Christina (centre below) the virtual meditation experience of an underwater setting was real and beautiful, the underwater visuals reminded her of an experience she had with a baby dolphin 20 years ago.

Have Your Say action plan – Get involved! Last week, the Metro North Health Employee Engagement Action Plan 2023-25 was launched, which is in direct response to the most recent Have Your Say survey results and aims to significantly increase employee satisfaction over the next 12 months. Read the launch message from Jackie Hanson and Raelene Burke. Four key focus areas have been identified in the action plan with 21 initiatives sitting underneath. People and Culture have put an EOI call out for employees across Metro North to be involved in one of 10 action groups which will co-design some these important projects. I encourage you to read more about all the action groups and take this opportunity to be part of a diverse team who aim to effect real culture change for all Metro North employees. The first action groups commencing soon are: PDPs: How can we do these better? Leading by example Supporting people through unplanned leave Creating better career pathways for our admin and ops staff. Find out more on QHEPS.

A final shout out

For those of you that missed it – Bruce Paige from Channel 9 came along for a sing-a-long with our Bright ‘N’ Sparks Brisbane North Dementia Choir.

“It’s attracting plenty of new members and for the people who attend, it’s making a difference as we see people with Dementia joining in the choir and the social activities at morning tea.”

One of the comments from a family member was that through signing in the choir,  their loved one used language that escapes them in ordinary conversation and sometimes this effect lasts all day.

I am grateful to our music teacher Katie Lawton, our pianist Althea O’Dee and volunteers like Liz, Norma and Dave – Thank you!

You are not just singing and building a choir, you are making a difference in people’s lives.

View the Channel 9 clip online …

Glynis.