The emergency department upgrade and new paediatric section will become operational on Wednesday, 21 June.

That upgrade has provided 12 new treatment spaces with a new paediatric emergency department section that offers patients and families a separate waiting room, triage, and treatment area.

The Australian Government funded the $10 million upgrade, which includes new facilities for hospital staff working in the emergency department.

Before the new areas become operational, we’re inviting all hospital staff to tour the new facilities, talk to emergency department staff, and see how it will all work.

There are three tour sessions available.

• Wednesday, 14 June, from 2:30pm to 4pm,
• Thursday, 15 June, from 2pm to 4pm, and
• Friday, 16 June, from 2pm to 4pm.

These times should be in everyone’s Outlook calendars.

There’s no need to RSVP for the tours, just gather outside the Emergency Department on the new round seats.

A reminder too, surgical masks are strongly recommended for all staff entering the emergency department.

Accreditation preparation update

Short notice accreditation will happen at Redcliffe any time after 1 July this year. When it does, we’ll have 24 hours’ notice of accreditors arriving.

Assessors will spend 80% of their time in clinical areas talking to nurses, doctors and hospital staff about how they do their work.

Last week, Senior Leadership Team members participated in an exercise where we visited wards and clinical areas to run people through the kind of questions assessors will ask.

It was a worthwhile exercise for all involved.

One standout was that too many areas still rely on folders of printed policies and procedures – instead of accessing these online. If you need help accessing procedures and guidelines for your work area online or on QHEPS, talk to your line manager.

To help us prepare further, next Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll have Safety & Quality colleagues from across Metro North Health at Redcliffe talking to staff and testing our readiness for accreditation.

Thank you to everyone who got involved in our big clean-up day on Tuesday. Skip-loads of junk and clutter have been taken away – and many parts of the hospital look much better for everyone’s efforts.

A reminder too that there’s an accreditation vidcast next Monday at 10am with Chief Executive Jackie Hanson and Chief Medical Officer Dr Liz Rushbrook focussing on preventing and controlling infections. Join the vidcast or watch a recording anytime on QHEPS.

Making it count – tip of the week

There’s never been a more important time to ensure we document our care correctly and make all our clinical work count.

Here’s this week’s tip from Health Information Services.

Constipation with faecal impaction?  Document both conditions.

To find out more about why accurate records as essential – talk to Health Information Services on 3883 7295.

Have your say staff survey – extended until next Friday

The Staff Survey has been extended for one week and now closes on Friday 16 June.

More than 800 hospital staff have taken part so far. That means there are still close to 1,700 of our colleagues yet to have their say.

If you haven’t yet logged onto the survey, please make a start. You can save your progress and come back later.

Please don’t miss this opportunity to have your say and make things better for everyone at Redcliffe Hospital.

Staff BBQ next Monday

Lastly this week, we have something to look forward to next Monday, with everyone invited to share in our next #IamRedcliffe Staff BBQ.

Come along anytime between 11am and 1pm in the Staff Courtyard for your free BBQ lunch, thanks to our friends at QSuper, part of Australian Retirement Trust.

Louise.