Louise O’Riordan, Acting Executive Director
I am pleased to announce that we have recently appointed a new Director of Finance for Redcliffe Hospital, Akhil Kapoor, who will commence with us on 21 August 2023. Akhil is an accomplished finance professional with expertise in clinical intelligence, data-driven decision-making, and procurement. His previous roles include Chief Finance Officer at Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LHN), Director of Business Operations at Northern Adelaide LHN, and Finance Business Partner at Central Adelaide LHN. He has a strong background in financial planning, performance analysis, and budget management. Akhil and his young family are moving from Mount Gambier to Brisbane, and I look forward to welcoming Akhil to the Redcliffe team next month.
Director of Nursing, Sally Taranec will be taking four weeks of leave commencing Monday 31 July. During this time, Keith Von Dohren will act in the role of Director of Nursing with his substantive position of Nursing Director, Medicine Service Line backfilled by Matt Wharton.
ESM and IeMR update
The launch event for the Redcliffe Hospital ieMR Project is scheduled for Tuesday 8 August 2023. This event will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams.
Please download the meeting invite for the launch event, if you have not yet received an invite.
In addition to this, classroom training for Enterprise Scheduling Management (ESM) has commenced at the Digital Hub, pictured below. Classroom training will run until Friday 1 September 2023.
ESM is the outpatient scheduling module of the integrated electronic Medical Record (ieMR), and will be replacing HBCIS APP across all ambulatory outpatient areas at Redcliffe Hospital from Monday 4 September 2023.
If you believe you require ESM training, please first discuss with your line manager before escalating to the ieMR Program at: ieMRProject-MetroNorth@health.qld.gov.au.
Redcliffe Hospital Staff Excellence Awards
Nominations for this year’s Redcliffe Hospital Staff Excellence Awards are now open. Anyone who works at Redcliffe Hospital can be nominated for these awards, including staff members, volunteers and students.
Nominations will close at 5pm on Friday 11 August.
Our Staff Excellence Awards are proudly supported by QSuper, part of Australian Retirement Trust.
Yarning Circle
Staff are invited to attend our Yarning Circle next Friday 4 August at 10am in the Healing Garden. The focus of the session will be National Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders Children’s Day which is an opportunity to show support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The Yarning Circle will be attended by members of the ‘Strong Start to Life’ team’ who are part of the Metro North Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Team. Morning tea will be provided. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Infection control reminders
Hand hygiene
Hand hygiene remains the single most effective means of reducing the risk of patients acquiring healthcare associated infections. All staff are reminded to adhere to the following ‘5 Moments for Hand Hygiene’:
- Before touching a patient
- Before a procedure
- After a procedure or body fluid exposure risk
- After touching a patient
- After touching a patient’s surroundings.
Bare below the elbows
‘Bare below the elbows’ is a vital hospital infection control measure to reduce the risk of healthcare associated infections. Bare below the elbows enhances hand hygiene compliance and reduces the risk for contaminated of sleeves, watches, and jewellery from contact with patients and hospital surfaces.
To comply with bare below the elbows staff must:
- not wear bracelets, wrist watches and rings with stones or ridges when providing clinical care (a single flat ring/band may be worn but must not interfere with hand hygiene)
- wear short sleeves or roll up long sleeves above the elbows
- nails must be kept short and clean and nail polish should not be worn. Artificial nails (gel or acrylic) must not be worn by any care staff/health care workers with direct patient contact
- any breached skin (cuts, dermatitis or abrasion) should be covered with a waterproof film dressing.
MRI Safety Week
This week is MRI Safety Week, an opportunity to expand education for hospital staff and review safety procedures within the department. This internationally recognised week was created in 2001 following the death of a six-year old boy undergoing an MRI who suffered massive head trauma from a projectile oxygen cylinder inadvertently brought into the scan room.
While projectile incidents are rare, adverse incidents continue to occur globally with thermal injuries accounting for 70 per cent of all MRI injuries. That is why access to our MRI scanner is strictly controlled by our very knowledgeable MRI team.
Our Redcliffe MRI Team has put together a quiz to test your knowledge. Answers will be released at the end of the month.
Remember – The magnet is always on!
Shout out
I’d like to shout out to the Redcliffe Hospital Staff Wellness group for their collaborative work with Redcliffe Hospital Clinical Council in supporting a new talk series on Burnout in Healthcare. This is an important issue that impacts on many of our day-to-day working lives and overall well-being.
I encourage staff to listen to the four 30-minute talks presented by Dr Olivia Lee Ong – a life coach, motivational speaker, and internationally acclaimed author.
It’s important we take time to care for ourselves, so we can continue to care for others, especially during these busy times.
Louise.