This year we will begin to see a number of physical changes throughout the hospital and campus, as we start planning for various upgrades and expansions to meet the growing demands on our services.

Staff may be aware that in June 2022, the Federal Government announced their commitment of an additional $300 million to fund the expansion of TPCH including an extra 93 beds.

This announcement is recognition that the needs of TPCH are changing, and the hospital must expand its physical footprint in order to continuing meeting the needs of our patients into the future. We are now seeing more and more patients every year, particularly through our emergency and outpatients departments so changes within these areas are becoming increasingly necessary.

Infrastructure changes within a hospital require extensive planning and consultation, and often involve physical reconfiguration of departments and workspaces. This requires all of us to remain flexible and adaptive in our work areas, and understand that we may need to change the way we work or where we work, in order to continue supporting the hospital to care for our patients in the best way possible.

Changes to our physical work arrangements can be challenging, however as staff members of TPCH, we have each been entrusted to utilise and take care of publicly supported hospital facilities and resources in the most responsible way possible, always keeping patients at the front and centre of what we do.

We know that TPCH staff are committed to patient care, having continually demonstrated resilience and adaptability over the last few years with the changing COVID-19 environment. So I know that staff will step up in the same way, to help ensure that TPCH can successfully deliver the changes required to care for our patients into the future.

Moving forward, the Executive team and I will endeavour to ensure that staff are kept well informed about any planned changes within the hospital, including expected impacts to individual services and work areas.

This is an exciting time to be working at TPCH and I am looking forward to sharing our journey ahead with everyone.

Executive Update

This week, Director of Operations, Surgery and Critical Care, Melanie Dubbelde and I visited the Central Sterilising Department to speak with staff and take a look through this busy unit which reprocesses over 125,000 items each year. Wow!  We learnt that the department is currently in the process of replacing its tunnel washer which supports the cleaning of surgical instruments. Thanks to Nurse Unit Manager, Megan and the team for having us; you’re doing some excellent work!

Also this week, Assistant Nursing Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service, Kirsty Leo; Finance Manager, Darren Ransom; and I visited the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service hub, where we met with new Nurse Navigator, First Nations Outpatients, Trina Scott. Trina’s role is to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and consumers with access to a culturally safe pathway to complete their wellness checks prior to their outpatients appointment or hospital admission. It was great to chat to Trina in the hub, which is where some of our First Nations patients go and relax while they wait for their outpatient appointment, or to travel home. What a comfortable space for our patients!

Following this, we also briefly popped into the Administration Services hub next door where we caught up with staff. It was good to touch base and share a few laughs.

FAST FACTS

This week, we will focus on the Clinical Pharmacology Department.

Did you know?:

• 

  Kirsty Rogan and Michael Williams from the Clinical Pharmacology team

  The clinical pharmacology department is the newest of only three clinical pharmacology departments in Queensland.

• The unit consists of a clinical pharmacologist, registrar, pharmacist and administrative officer.
• The clinical pharmacology department works closely with the Drugs and Therapeutic Committee and TPCH pharmacy department to support safe, quality and cost-effective use of medicines.
• Clinical pharmacologists specialise in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, toxicology, drug interactions, therapeutic drug monitoring, adverse drug reactions and critical appraisal of medication usage.
• The clinical pharmacology department is responsible for reviewing use of medications not on the hospital formulary.
• In 2022, there were 298 individual patient approvals for medicines requiring special approval (non-formulary medicines) at TPCH

Since the clinical pharmacology department was introduced in July 2022, the average review time of digital medication approval requests decreased by 17 days, resulting in faster patient access to non-formulary medicines.

Staff Profile

This week we will profile TPCH’s new Administration Manager Telecommunications, Stephanie Vanden Hurk.

Prior to TPCH, Stephanie spent over a decade as an Emergency Medical Dispatcher for the Queensland Ambulance Service and Retrieval Services Queensland, undertaking a number of different management roles during this time.

In her new role at TPCH, Stephanie is involved with planning, coordinating and delivering telecommunication services across TPCH. She values providing high quality customer service, looking at ways to improve service delivery, and fostering a safe and supportive environment for her staff to work and develop in. She is passionate about patient care and safety, especially for the young and elderly.

In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her young family, going to the beach, and working on her strength and health. Welcome Stephanie!

Shout out

This week’s shout out goes to Cancer Care Services at TPCH, which as of Wednesday 1 February, integrated with RBWH Cancer Care Services and is now called ‘Metro North Cancer Care Services – The Prince Charles Hospital site.’

This change in governance has occurred to support the continued delivery of high quality patient care as the service continues to grow.  Even though the governance of Cancer Care Services has changed, we still consider our Cancer Care Services team part of our TPCH family. And Director of Operations, EPIC, Karlene Willcocks and I visited them this week to let them know that. Keep up the great work!

Today’s quote

“No matter how you define success, you will need to be resilient, empowered, authentic, and limber to get there.” – Joanie Connell

Tami.