Tami Photinos, Executive Director, The Prince Charles Hospital
We’ve come to the end of another week, and remain at Tier 3 as part of our COVID-19 response.
A reminder that with this move of Tier, the current COVID working from home arrangements will end on Sunday. Staff who are currently working from home under the previous Tier 4 requirements will return to the workplace as usual from Monday 14 February.
RATs
A reminder that eligible staff can access RATs through TPCH Staff Testing Clinic in Outpatients B on ground floor, between 8am – 12 noon, 7 days a weeks.
Outside these hours, RATs can be accessed through TPCH’s public fever clinic, Chermside Community Health Centre which operates from 8.30am – 4pm, 7 days a week.
Shout out
This week I received some positive feedback from one our most senior respiratory physicians about the entire EMU team. The physician was extremely complimentary about the skills, care and compassion of the medical team in their diagnosis and treatment of a particular patient, and praised the high level care provided by the surgical and nursing team. To use the physician’s words – “The staff in EMU were awesome!” Well done EMU team – a great effort by all.
Staff Profile
From this week, we will begin profiling different staff members from across the hospital so we get to know more about the great staff working at TPCH. We will kick off these profiles with TPCH’s Director of Pharmacy, Ross McDougall.
Ross leads a team of approximately 90 staff including 65 pharmacists, 20 Pharmacy Clinical Assistants and 6 administration staff who together, support the dispensation and distribution of over 22,000 items every month! The majority of pharmacists are based in wards, with some working in the dispensary, Safety and Quality, and as a clinical educator. The department consists of the main Pharmacy as well as satellite pharmacies in general medicine, mental health, oncology and cystic fibrosis.
Under Ross’s almost decade long directorship, the department has been recognised at various levels for its innovation and performances. Some key achievements include:
- First Queensland Hospital Pharmacy site to implement a team-based pharmacy service including ward-based pharmacy technicians who support optimised medicines use for patients.
- Winner of the National Health RoundTable Medicines Improvement Innovation Awards in 2017, 2019 and 2020 on Collaborative Pharmacist-Doctor Prescribing, Review of medication-related hospital acquired complications and development of the Determining Right Opioid Product Guide.
- Exemplar site for clinical pharmacy service delivery across Australia as demonstrated by being top performer in Health Round Table data for a proportion of patients who are reviewed by a pharmacist as part of their hospital stay (2016 – 2nd; 2017 to 2021 – 1st).
As Director, Ross values the principles of clinical excellence and innovation, supporting team members to constantly improve patient outcomes. He also strives to create a fun team environment, where staff feel supported, laugh a lot and enjoy coming to work. He encourages his team’s participation in hospital events such as Charlies Week as well as fun team building activities in the local work area.
As an example of Pharmacy’s fun team culture, this week, members of the Pharmacy team dressed in blue shirts, in support of Ross’s favourite work shirt colour, to celebrate Ross’s 50th birthday.
Now that’s teamwork!
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Today we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day that inspires and engages women and girls to have a full and equal participation in science.
Here at TPCH, we are privileged to have such an incredible cohort of women working and studying in the field of science. What incredible role models to young girls considering a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)! The Common Good have compiled a list of just some of these incredible women and I would encourage you to have a read here – International Day of Women & Girls in Science.
It seemed the dog mask meme in my Wednesday message started a trend among other dog owners across TPCH.
Here is a photo of ‘Pippa’ who belongs to one of our surgeons, wearing her mask in support of COVID-19 safety. Please wear your mask and help keep everyone safe.
Thank you everyone for your great work this week.
Tami Photinos
Executive Director