Angie Dobbrick, Executive Director, Caboolture, Kilcoy & Woodford Clinical Directorate
We recently identified an urgent need to temporarily extend capacity of the current Caboolture Hospital Emergency Department (ED).
Patient presentations continue to increase rapidly in line with growth in the community we care for, despite a recent downturn in respiratory virus cases.
Late last week, the hospital took possession of a temporary new ED Fast Track area, located in the former Allied Health Outpatient Services area (main building end of the cheesegrater).
The ED team has used the past few days to get the space ready with clinical implementation starting today (Wednesday 31 August).
We now have 12 Fast Track beds, new nurse station, administration office, patient waiting area and accessible toilet.
The space vacated by Fast Track will be used to expand the paediatric emergency department area.
It also provides the opportunity to start a new ‘Care Initiation Area’, which will include a Clinical Initiative Nurse (CIN) and Senior Medical Officer (SMO) for rapid assessment of patients from the waiting room.
These temporary changes will help us to care for the increasing number of patients presenting to the Emergency Department and improve our flow until the new clinical services building opens in mid-2023.
The footprints on the wall in the central corridor lead from the pivot nurse to the new Fast Track location.
A very big thank you to our Allied Health colleagues, who were relocated at short notice to the Caboolture Super Clinic to create the much-needed extra space.
They also have a welcoming, contemporary space in the Caboolture CBD which has been very well received by patients.
Many of our ED presentations become inpatients, so we will also continue to search for locations for additional temporary inpatient beds until mid-2023.
I’m extremely proud of what we’ve been able to achieve in a very short amount of time. It will ensure we can continue to provide great quality care to our community.
Great work, Team CKW!
Take Care,
Angie.