Newsroom

The RBWH saw over 800,000 outpatients in the last year, and Nurse Navigator Amanda is one of a few special people making the hospital experience easier for them. 🏥🗺️

"It`s all about hospital avoidance so we look at ways we can engage our patients into attending their outpatient appointments, looking at the barriers to why they aren`t attending, and linking them with community support services," Amanda explains.

"We work with people who have two or more specialist outpatient specialists and may need that extra assistance, whether English is their second language or they don`t have much family support, we see a broad range of patients.

"We act as a central point of contact, and we work across multiple specialties, departments and external services to ensure patients receive the right care at the right time."

The RBWH Nurse Navigator service is recruiting for another compassionate and skilled clinician to join their team. If this sounds like you then click the link in our bio and apply today! #WorkforusWednesday ...

"I got my LVAD [left ventricular assist device] two years ago now, I was 20 when I had a fall at a park and I hurt my back really bad, so I came to the hospital. It was when I went to hospital that they found out my blood pressure was really low, so I went to the Coronary Care Unit and then ICU, and we found out that the left side of my heart doesn`t work properly and I had my surgery. I can do a lot of stuff now that I wouldn`t have been able to do without the LVAD, I couldn`t walk 5 minutes away because I was always out of breath. I would say if something is wrong, then keep fighting to find an answer for yourself."

💭 Monday Mantra, Annalease, TPCH Cardiac Patient ...

If you’ve ever had that dreaded feeling that something you ate was not quite right, only to have your fears confirmed when violent illness presents hours later, you’re not alone. In fact, our Metro North Public Health Unit would investigate a food-borne illness outbreak every couple of weeks. 😮

It’s one of the investigations that relies on the full team working together, with epidemiology, communicable disease and environmental health teams each playing an important role in cracking the case.

Metro North Public Health Unit’s Dr James said food investigations pull on the full team to solve them and rely on intel from the public. 💡🔎

“Outbreaks themselves are fairly common, but we count on the public coming forward to tell us and that is where we will look at your meals for the previous five days, it’s not just your lasts meal as sometimes people think,” he said.

“Our epi team will collect all the info on those who became sick, and then our environmental health officers will undertake site visits and get samples as well as looking a food storage and preparation processes to work out what’s happened.

“Then the team will work with our helpful labs to look at those samples to confirm the exact cause of illness and link it back to the investigation.

“As a team, our goal is always to work out what’s happened and then educate the provider on what they can do better to prevent future outbreaks.” ...