In my last message, I talked about how crucial good hand hygiene is to providing safe and quality care. This week, I’d like us to focus on our patient identification practices.

Safe and quality care means giving the right patient the right care at the right time, to do that, everyone needs to be familiar with the Metro North Patient Identification and Matching Procedure.

The procedure requires both clinical and non-clinical staff to use a minimum of three approved patient identifiers:

• each time a patient is admitted or registered
• whenever care, therapy or services are provided
• whenever medications are dispensed or administered
• when the patient is transferred to another care area, and
• when discharge documentation is generated.

Those identifiers that we can use include:

• The patient’s family name (UPPER CASE) and given names (lower case)
• The patient’s date of birth (dd/mm/yyyy)
• The patient’s Hospital Record Number (URN).

Where one of these three identifiers cannot be used, an alternative such as a Medicare number or full home address may be sourced.

The patient is always the primary source for this information. When we are identifying patients, we’re asking the patient to tell us the answer, not reading them the information and asking them to confirm it.

The procedure also details how we can preserve a patient’s privacy and confidentiality during this process, correct use of patient armbands, and extra measures that can be taken when patients have similar names.

Please make sure that you’re aware of your obligations when it comes to patient identification and matching – it’s all part of communicating for safety.

Little Voices, Loud Futures

Thank you to everyone who joined us this morning for our Yarning Circle in the Healing Garden for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day.

This year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day theme is Little Voices, Loud Futures. It’s a theme that focuses on the potential for those little voices to speak proudly and be heard today and in the future.

If you couldn’t attend, I encourage everyone to learn more about the day’s significance, how it began, and why it’s important on our journey to Health Equity.

Improving clinical skills and confidence

As healthcare professionals, we’re committed to continually improving the care we provide and our skills in delivering that care.

Last week, the Emergency Department team ran a four-hour workshop with QAS paramedics to improve everyone’s skills and confidence when transferring critically ill patients.

The practical simulations aimed to improve clinical skills and the teamwork and communication required between medical, nursing and paramedic staff during patient transfer.

You can read more about that workshop and collaboration with QAS on the Metro North Health website.

Well done to everyone involved and to Dr Oonagh Mitchell for her efforts in arranging the sessions.

Staff Excellence Awards

A reminder to everyone that nominations are now open for this year’s Staff Excellence Awards.

This year there are eight award categories that you can nominate your colleagues for – including awards that celebrate leadership, innovation, excellence in training, and performance. The People Focus award is always very competitive too – being shared last year among four different winners.

We’ve made the award nomination process as simple as possible this year, and you can nominate people for multiple awards – improving their chances of being recognised for their outstanding contributions.

Nominate, or find out more. Nominations will close at 5pm on Friday 11 August.

Our Staff Excellence Awards are proudly supported by QSuper, part of Australian Retirement Trust.

World Breastfeeding Week

This week is World Breastfeeding Week – an annual campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance and benefits of breastfeeding. This year the theme is, “enabling breastfeeding – making a difference for working parents”.

Queensland Health supports breastfeeding mothers with the entitlement to one hour paid lactation break for every eight hours worked. Here at the hospital, there’s also a dedicated staff breastfeeding / expressing room on Level 2 of the Main Building, near PACU. Those facilities include a private lockable room, comfortable chairs, sink, fridge and change table.

Find out more about World Breastfeeding Week.

Staff Wellness update

At the Clinical Council meeting this week, Dr Seema Saddi updated everyone on some of the great work being done by our Staff Wellness Working Group.

Dr Saddi talked about how the working group is connecting with Facility Services, Medical Workforce, and our junior doctors to refurbish their common room to make it more supportive to their wellbeing.

With the help of Raise it for Redcliffe’s Wishlist Grants, the Wellness Working Group has been able to provide staff access to a new shaded table space outside MBICC.

Ahead of the Expansion works later this year, the Working Group is helping the hospital to find new and better locations for outdoor tables and restful staff break areas.
And, there is also the lecture series on preventing burnout in health care by Dr Olivia Lee Ong. Those lectures are still online, and available here:  Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3 and Lecture 4.

Thank you to Dr Saddi and the Staff Wellness Working Group for all of this great work. The working group is one of a number active in the hospital community supporting staff wellness and wellbeing, alongside REDDY Fun & Fitness, our Peer Responders, and our Clinical Council.

Louise.