This week, we reached an important milestone with the conclusion of Queensland’s declared public health emergency. This has meant the removal of mask mandates within our hospital facility as well as some changes to how we manage COVID positive staff and patients.

While we welcome these changes, it is still good to maintain COVID-safe practices, especially with the festive season approaching. This means staying at home when you’re sick, and keeping up good infection control practices. If you have any queries, please contact our Infection Control team.

It’s only a few weeks until TPCH Charlies Week, (28 November to 2 December), our hospital’s annual celebratory event which includes a range of fun, informative, and reward and recognition activities designed to say thank you for all the great work you do throughout the year.

Activities include:

• Staff Wellness Day
• The Common Good Charity Giving Day
• Fun staff activities (you’ll need to register)
• Staff Excellence Awards
• Length of Service Awards
• Ward Dress Up Competition
• Celebrity Comedy Night
• Food

We have a great line up of activities and events on offer, so please check out the program and join in where you can.

View TPCH Week Charlies Program

Executive Walkarounds

This week, Director of Allied Health, Perry Judd; Finance Manager, Darren Ransom and I visited the RAS/Rehabilitation Day Therapy Unit gym where we had the opportunity to view a new hi-tech patient lifting system designed to improve the rehabilitation of patients with life affecting illness and injuries. The new Zero-G robotic gait and balance system, which is the first in Queensland, is used to provide safe mobilisation and therapy for patients with reduced mobility and balance resulting from various neurological or surgical conditions. We had the chance to watch recovering stroke patient, Justin, use the Zero-G as part of his rehabilitation program. This new system will give patients like Justin, more independence and confidence with their rehabilitation, without the need for as much supervision and physical support from our physiotherapists.

A great innovation! Well done to our physio team!

Earlier this week, I participated in the trial of a Virtual Reality (VR) Skills Training program hosted by our Simulation Service in the Education Centre. The Vantari VR system helps doctors, nurses and students practise various medical procedures to help reduce error and improve patient outcomes. Along with 15 other staff from different clinical areas, I had the opportunity to enter a Virtual Cath Lab and trial the system, working through the early stages of preparing a patient for the insertion of a right heart catheter. It was a certainly a unique experience. Felt like I was in a sci-fi movie!  Thanks to Kim Gourlay, Simulation Coordinator for taking the time to show me the system. I think Kim and the team will agree I really need to work on my artificial intelligence!

Also this week, we had our monthly performance meeting with Metro North executive members. These meetings are an opportunity to discuss our current performance, as well as showcase areas where we are excelling. TPCH received some positive feedback around our recovery planning work following COVID, which like all Metro North hospitals, resulted in a reduction in our planned care. During July and August, we lost 66 days of planned care, so have been working closely with our programs since this time to develop strategies to optimise our activity and allow more patients who have been waiting, to receive their care.

I also attended the regular Medical Program Leads Forum chaired by Director of Medical Services, Donna O’Sullivan. A very valuable opportunity to bring our clinical directors together and discuss current issues.

FAST FACTS

This week we will share some fast facts about TPCH Medical Imaging Department.

Did you know?:

• Medical Imaging Department has a team that consists of over 160 radiologists, nursing, radiographer, administration, sonographer, nuclear medicine technicians, nuclear medicine physician and clinical assistant staff.
• Each year, the department images and treats over 120,000 patients – 30,000 more patients than it looked after 10 years ago.
• The emergency department is Medical Imaging’s largest referrer and, on average, currently makes up almost half of all of its patients.
• Other services provided by the medical imaging department includes mobile x-ray and ultrasounds in wards, specialist imaging in theatres, radiographer support in the Cardiac Catheter Labs, and nuclear medicine scans in the Cardiac Investigations Unit.
• You could buy 3,300 business class, around the world flights for the cost of all of the Medical Imaging Department’s equipment.
• The department provides unique MRI cardiac scanning examinations and is a world leader in new cardiac MRI scanning techniques.
• Medical Imaging never closes! During business hours, there are over 70 staff rostered which transitions to a single radiographer between midnight and 7am.
• The department’s PACS system (where all images are stored) is shared with RBWH and Redcliffe Hospital and has 574 Terabytes of image storage (about 3 years worth), consisting of over 2.2 billion separate files.

The department is an integral part of many research projects by providing essential imaging for trials of new prostheses, evaluation of drug effectiveness or early disease detection e.g. International lung screening trial, mitral valve clips.

Staff Profile

This week we will profile Clinical Nurse, Clinical Trials and Research, Cardiology Clinical Research Centre, Bo Janoschka.

In this role, Bo is responsible for coordinating and managing clinical trials, registries and biobanks. This includes collecting research data, screening for and working with trial participants, collaborating with the research team regarding contracts, budgets, ethics and governance. He has also recently collaborated in research protocol development and conducting studies as an associate and principal investigator.

Having previously worked in various nursing roles within internal medicine and research, orthopaedics, wound care, DUIT and as a student facilitator, Bo is passionate about supporting the delivery of equitable and efficient high quality, cutting edge care to patients and partnering with them in the health care journey. He values using his skills and gifts to enable people to achieve the best possible health outcomes.

Outside of work, Bo’s interests include playing club soccer, surfing and enduro mountain biking. He enjoys keeping up with the latest technology trends, innovations and gadgets, especially those that help protect the environment and tackle climate change.

Giving Day

The countdown to Giving Day is on! On Wednesday 30 November during TPCH Charlies Week, we are aiming to raise at least $350,000 for TPCH to support crucial patient-focused programs and projects to assist older people in our communities to recover faster, leave hospital sooner, and regain their independence quicker.

You can get involved by:

Fundraising during November

• The Common Good team has created a number of resources to help with your fundraising efforts from posters to bunting, treat toppers to planning sheets. Download all your fundraising resources or contact the team at events@thecommongood.org.au for a printed pack.
• Check out these fundraising tips from Madonna Dalton, NUM of Ward 2D who had one of the highest fundraising teams last year!

Volunteer on Giving Day

• Can you spare 2 hours to join The Common Good community raising money for our hospital? Register for The Common Good’s Giving Day!

Giving Day is a team effort, and it’s all of us working together that will achieve the greatest and most significant impacts. Last year’s Giving Day was an incredible success with donations being used to fund the upgraded dementia sensory garden in the CAM unit, the ICU of the Future and therapy dogs across the hospital.

Shout out

This week’s shout out goes to Fire Safety Coordinator, Danny MacGregor for his excellent efforts in supporting TPCH to meet its mandatory fire training requirements. Danny has gone above and beyond in assisting staff to access the necessary fire training by scheduling additional sessions, and working closely with areas to meet their individual training needs. Danny also undertakes investigations of Code Red incidents providing recommendation and opportunities for learning. He has been agile, responsive and committed to the safety of our hospital and its people, and we thank Danny for his fantastic work.

Today’s quote

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” – Mario Andretti

Tami Photinos
Executive Director