Tami Photinos, Executive Director
Today is the first day of spring, a time of year which symbolises rebirth, renewal and revival. Spring is commonly a time when we start feeling better with the warmer weather; re-evaluate our health and fitness goals; make plans for new hobbies and holidays; and maybe even do a bit of spring cleaning.
For me personally, spring represents a time when I reassess my health as it was in spring just over two years ago that I had a heart attack. This experience was a wake-up call and made me reflect on my broader lifestyle and focus on starting fresh habits. I actively made some big lifestyle changes that have allowed me to take care of myself better and those around me, while still fulfilling my work-related responsibilities.
With this in mind, I encourage you to think about your own situation, and identify where you might be able to do a bit of personal and professional spring cleaning so to speak, to help keep yourself in a good place, especially during these demanding periods.
While on the topic of spring cleaning, I would like to take the opportunity to remind staff to keep their local work environments clean, tidy and efficient, especially with short notice assessment just around the corner!
Executive update
This week, Director Planning and Strategy, Katie Tully and I visited Pathology Services in the Clinical Sciences Building. Here we went on a very comprehensive tour of the various areas within the service including anatomical pathology, transfusion lab, haematology lab, central specimen reception, chemistry, microbiology and phlebotomy. Each of these areas play an important role in supporting the delivery of high quality and timely patient care at TPCH.
We were interested to learn that TPCH Pathology Services, which also oversees the pathology labs at Redcliffe and Caboolture Hospitals, is one of the largest Pathology Queensland labs, receiving approximately 1,000 requests every day and performing approximately 100,000 phlebotomy collections each year. A big thanks to David Godbolt, Trish Cullen and the entire Pathology Queensland TPCH team for their great work in supporting our patients.
Have your Say survey
We’re continuing to work through the feedback received from the survey, with the aim of identifying key themes and areas that require attention.
One area commonly identified is staff safety. The Executive team are aware of this issue on a number of levels and are 100% committed to providing staff with a safe work environment where they feel protected and comfortable while carrying out their everyday duties. We are carefully evaluating all items of feedback to determine the different aspects of this issue, and what steps the organisation needs to take to address these in both the immediate and longer term.
Here are some more ‘Messages in a Bottle’:
MESSAGES IN A BOTTLE
- Better alert system for patients that have a history of verbal and/or physical abuse
- Lighting outside the buildings
- Security – the staff/fire exit door near Breeze Café is often not locked or left ajar; additional security cameras
- Staff safety, especially in emergency
- Thank you for your support and making the organisation at TPCH the best place to work in and giving everyone the opportunity to express ourselves about our personal experiences at work
TPCH Charlies Week
A reminder that TPCH Charlies Week celebrations will run from 23 to 27 October 2023. This week, which aligns with the hospital’s birthday, is an opportunity for staff to come together and celebrate the great work we do here at TPCH. The week offers a variety of fun, educational and recognition activities and events that staff can get involved in – there’s something for everyone!
To find out how you can get involved, please view the program below.
This week, we’ll profile the Building Engineering and Maintenance Services (BEMS) team.
Did you know?
BEMS is a Metro North wide service which coordinates the maintenance and repair of infrastructure assets for over 200 unique buildings.- TPCH BEMS operates 24/7, and is 50 staff strong, and manages 375 external contractor vendors.
- It has six departments – Electricians, Plumbers, Carpenters, Refrigeration, Fitters, as well as a hardworking gardens and grounds team who maintain 85 acres.
- To deliver their service, BEMS relies on over 11,000 notifications being raised by the facility in addition to all scheduled maintenance.
- TPCH BEMS oversees the disposal of 1,484 tonnes of waste each year.
- On average, BEMS staff can take between 10,000 to 25,000 steps each day.
On Fridays, you’ll see BEMS tradespersons around the campus proudly wearing their TradeMutt shirts to raise awareness of mental health within the construction industry.
Staff profile
Today we’ll profile Ultrasound Team Leader, Medical Imaging Department, Chris Gilmore.
Having served TPCH for almost 25 years, Chris has been dedicated to the sonography, continually upskilling in the profession which included taking a yearlong sabbatical to the NHS in the United Kingdom to work as a reporting sonographer. For the last decade, Chris has led Medical Imaging’s clinical ultrasound section, providing care to patients, supporting referrers within TPCH, and imparting advice to colleagues and clients on ultrasound matters throughout Queensland Health.
Chris enjoys meeting and helping patients regarding diagnosis in their healthcare journey. He especially values happiness in the workplace, which is reflected through his dedicated and productive sonography team who he considers his second family. Chris, who was awarded Queensland’s 2022 Sonographer of the Year, is passionate about helping fellow staff achieve their full potential so that clinical succession occurs, and healthcare for patients improves.
Shout out
This week’s shout out goes to the staff of our Adult Emergency Department. The team received this wonderful compliment from a local mum and dad which shines a light on their great skill, teamwork and compassion in supporting our patients and families. Well done!
On weekends, Chris is completely devoted to kids, school and club sport, which includes soccer, netball and water polo – Go EJ! Go Virginia United! Go Maggies! And Go Mermaids!
Our three girls were recently involved in an eight car pile up on the Gateway Motorway. Appearing to be relatively uninjured (and pumped with adrenaline), the Ambos put them on a bus and sent them to Petrie Railway station to get home. They had 19 casualties to deal with on an active motorway so the triage would have been extremely difficult under the circumstances. I’m not judging! They are heroes in my eyes and also human.
I rediverted from the Gateway Motorway to Petrie to collect the girls and took them straight up to the Prince Charles Hospital where they were assessed immediately and bought into the treatment rooms. The staff at the Prince Charles were absolutely amazing and once told the accident was a multi-vehicle and occurred in a 100K zone, the diagnosis process and quantity of staff involvement was uplifted immediately. The staff arranged scans, pain relief and treatment.The girls’ stay was as pleasant as could be under the circumstances and M commented that she was extremely apprehensive about going into emergency based on her previous experience at another hospital. Her preconceived thoughts were quickly “put to bed” when she was treated by the friendliest and warmest staff who displayed a genuine care for her and listened to what she was trying to relay, and didn’t brush it aside.
We are so grateful for the staff, doctors, nurses and trauma counsellors who assisted our girls and calmed them and their parents. The common comment from all our family members was how the staff were so kind, thoughtful, extremely helpful and considerate.
The way they all worked as a team was amazing to watch. From the communication between doctors, nurses, the “workshop” staff , the amazingly lovely Counsellor (Anne), and the outstanding cleaning staffer who was jumping into rooms to mop floors whilst the girls were taken away to get CT scans, and everyone else working in the background, I wish to send my heartfelt thanks to all of your heroes.
Thank you all for looking after our most precious girls.
Today’s quote
“An optimist is the human personification of Spring.” – Susan J. Bissonette
Tami.