Chief Executive Update – 20 April 2022

As of today, we have: 

• 85 COVID-19 positive inpatients
• 179 employees with COVID-19
• 53 employees in precautionary quarantine
• 67 employees who are primary close contacts and working under public health exemption

In this update, we cover: 

• Patient Experience Week
• Saying Happy Birthday and celebrating five years of Monash Children’s Hospital
• Congratulations to our colleagues and partners
• Getting a sense of the future
• Updated advice for symptomatic employees
• Renew your annual Nursing and Midwifery registration
• Demountable units at Casey Hospital
• No Flu in 2022: Free flu vaccination available now
• Keeping up to date with COVID-19
• Approval – Health and Allied Services, Managers and Administrative Workers (Victorian Public Sector) (Single Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement 2021-2025
• Saying thank you with free 5-minute massages
• Privacy: is it time to refresh your training?
• Implementing a new pharmaceutical waste stream – P22 Pharmaceutical Waste Container
• Borrow a device through the Virtual Care Device Library
• Patient Experience Survey: Help us understand what’s important to you
• SEPHU Case Contact and Outbreak Management Team take home STAR award
• Sign up for the 10th Annual Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital!

As we experience a busy time during the school holiday period, I want to take a moment to thank you. Your commitment continues to make a real difference when our community needs it.

I particularly want to acknowledge the efforts of our Emergency Department and maternity teams. Emergency Departments and maternity services across the state are under sustained pressure, and I want to thank our remarkable teams for maintaining a high level of care in the face of increased demand.

You have continued to work together with humility, respect, kindness, and compassion. With this teamwork in mind, next week’s 2022 Patient Experience Week theme of “We are better together” seems very fitting.

Patient Experience Week is an opportunity for us to recognise the important work we all do to provide positive patient experiences and lead the path towards experiences that exceed expectations.

This year, Patient Experience Week is being marked from Monday 25 to Friday 29 April. I encourage you to get involved and take advantage of the events, opportunities and competitions we are running.

Celebrating five years of Monash Children’s Hospital 

Yesterday we celebrated five years since the first patients moved into the Monash Children’s Hospital.

Celebrations included fancy dress by employees and special guests, a colouring competition and cupcakes. Look out for coverage of the special milestone celebrations in the coming days. Congratulations to all who made it a special day.

If you or your friends and family would like to support the work of Monash Children’s, registrations are now open for the 10^th Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital. Registration is free for Monash Health employees, and you could win free coffee for a year!

Congratulations to our colleagues and partners

I’m pleased to share congratulations and positive news which reflects the depth and breadth of our work and some outstanding achievements by our colleagues, partners, and peers.

Dr Rebecca Goldstein has been awarded the Premier’s Award for Health Services Researcher. Dr Goldstein is a consultant endocrinologist at Monash Health and a research fellow at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), part of the Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences faculty at Monash University.

Rebecca was recognised for her research into the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle while pregnant.

Karen Bellamy has been listed as one of three finalists for Nurse of the Year at this year’s HESTA Australian Nursing & Midwifery Awards.

Karen practices in the field of specialist immunisation, including immunisation research. With over 25 years of overall nursing experience, she is currently the only Immunisation Nurse Practitioner in Australia who practices across the lifespan. Being a finalist is not only a great credit to Karen; it reflects excellence within our nursing and midwifery ranks. Best of luck to Karen when the winner is announced on 19 May.

Megan Clark has been named the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) 2021 Early Career Pharmacist of the Year.

The award celebrates Ms Clark’s commitment to advancing pharmacy services within neonatal, paediatric and maternity services and her achievements in pharmacy. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement.

Dr Kushani Jayasinghe has received the 2022 Richard King Trainee Award, established by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine. 

This award recognises a trainee’s contribution to high-quality research in ACMG’s official journal, Genetics in Medicine. Dr Jayasinghe received the award for her article ‘Clinical impact of genomic testing in patients with suspected monogenic kidney disease’, and I congratulate Kushani on this award and recognition.

Monash University was recognised as number one in the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject for Pharmacy and Pharmacology. 

It is the first time that an Australian university has achieved this rank in this discipline, with Monash University also receiving top tier rankings in Education (13th), Nursing (14th), and Anatomy and Physiology (29th).

We are the lucky beneficiaries of this excellence; many of our pharmacists have graduated from Monash and pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences students at Monash University have played a key role in our COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Getting a sense of the future
Last week we took the opportunity to hear about what virologists are saying might happen next with coronavirus.

While nobody has a crystal ball, Adjunct Associate Professor Tony Korman, Director of Monash Infectious Diseases, shared some insights based on some recently released research from the US.

The key takeaway was a prediction (based on data, maths, science and virology) that there is a 70% chance we won’t see a new omicron-like variant emerge. Over the next 12 months, we are likely to see some further evolution of Omicron as it seeks to escape immunity.

If you have a healthy interest in this kind of modelling, please take a listen to Professor Korman and take a look at nextstrain.org and the related article in the New York Times.

Thank you to everyone for your hard work and commitment to excellent patient care. You continue to embody our pursuit of excellence in healthcare.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive

Key Messages

Updated advice for symptomatic employees 

Throughout the pandemic, we have asked you not to attend work if you are experiencing COVID-like symptoms (fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss or change in sense of smell or taste).   This ‘don’t attend work if symptomatic’ approach and your vigilance in following it have helped keep our health service safe.

As we have learned more about COVID-19 infection, and access to both PCR and RAT testing has improved, we are now in a position to take a more sophisticated approach to ensuring that infectious team members don’t attend work.  Now, if you have tested negative for COVID-19, and your symptoms are improving or completely recovered, you may be able to return to work.

You may return to work if you meet the following criteria:

• You have received a negative PCR test
• Your symptoms are improving or you are feeling better (no muscle aches and pains, no headache, improving cough, etc.)
• You have not experienced a fever in the past 24 hours

You must wear an N95 while onsite and have breaks alone until symptoms are resolved.  If your PCR test returns a negative result, but your symptoms are not improving or worsening, do not attend work. Please take another PCR test.

Renew your annual Nursing and Midwifery registration
Online annual registration renewal for nurses and midwives is now open.   We encourage all Monash Health registered and enrolled nurses, midwives and nurse practitioners to renew your registration early and avoid delays during the busy renewal period.

Renewing your registration is easy. Simply, visit the Australian Health Practitioner Regulations Agency (AHPRA) website to complete your online renewal.

Demountable units at Casey Hospital
With Casey Hospital experiencing unprecedented demand for emergency care, temporary demountable units will be installed adjacent to the current emergency department.   Specifically designed to meet community needs, these new clinical facilities will include resuscitation, negative pressure, and general emergency cubicles.

Free flu vaccinations available now
Don’t let flu make you miss out on anything this winter. Our annual program of free flu vaccinations is now available to all Monash Health employees.   Protect yourself, your family, patients, and colleagues as soon as you can. Find more information and details of where to get your Flu vaccination here.

Keep up to date with COVID-19
To help you stay across the current state of play with COVID-19 precautions, we’ve put together a Current COVID-19 Guidance Summary. The factsheet is available on the COVID-19 website and brings together the latest guidance around public health measures, testing, isolation, PPE, and ways of working.

Approval – Health and Allied Services, Managers and Administrative Workers (Victorian Public Sector) (Single Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement 2021-2025  

I’m pleased to advise that the Health and Allied Services, Managers and Administrative Workers (Victorian Public Sector) (Single Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement 2021-2025 has now been approved by the Fair Work Commission and will be operative from 20 April 2022.

A copy of the Enterprise Agreement will be available shortly on the People and Culture intranet page. We are working with Payroll to confirm the dates that salary increases and back pay will be processed and we’ll provide you with an update as soon as possible.

Saying thank you with free 5-minute massages
Looking to relieve some tension, improve concentration and improve your mood? Over the next few months, we will be providing employees with free 5-minute chair-based massages.  Massage therapists will be going out to individual wards, departments, and programs across many of our sites.

This is a rolling initiative, with individual areas and sites being notified the week prior to the dates and times the massage therapists will be visiting. Find out more here.

Privacy: is it time to refresh your training?
How we manage the privacy of our patients and our colleagues is an important element of the trust they place in us.  Every day, sensitive information is disclosed to us in confidence, and for a clear purpose, and must be handled carefully and sensitively. We don’t always get this right.  An intentional or deliberate privacy breach means you are breaking the law, and you could lose your job.

With Accreditation approaching, it’s time to check if your privacy training needs a refresher. The privacy e-learning module will help you better understand your legal responsibilities regarding accessing, disclosing and handling personal information.   I encourage you to log onto Latte and refresh your privacy training as soon as you can.

A new pharmaceutical waste stream – P22 Pharmaceutical Waste Container 

We have implemented a new pharmaceutical waste stream to reduce our environmental impact.

Pharmacy and Support Services identified the red P22 Pharmaceutical Waste Container as a suitable option to ensure pharmaceutical waste is incinerated at high temperatures. This prevents contamination of landfill sites and stops pharmaceutical compounds leaching into the environment. Find out more here.

Borrow a device through the Virtual Care Device Library
The Virtual Care model has been successfully implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and now integrates into our everyday practice across all Monash Health sites.   We are currently running a pilot program where clinical staff from across Monash Health can borrow a digital device for up to two weeks.

Devices are currently available for collection and return from the Clayton Library. If the pilot is successful, we will aim to roll out this initiative across other Monash Health sites.

More information, including how to reserve your digital device, is available here.

Patient Experience: Help us understand what’s important to you  

We want to hear what matters most to the community we serve: our healthcare workers, patients, family members, carers, consumers, and volunteers.

Complete the Patient Experience short survey and let us know what makes a great healthcare experience.

At Monash Health we strive to embed the four pillars of patient experience – Care, Comfort, Communication and Co-ordination, under an umbrella of Compassion – into every patient interaction.

We are working to develop service standards for each of the four pillars of patient experience. These service standards will define your expectations, and Monash Health’s commitment to meet or exceed expectations. That’s why we need your help. You can complete the Patient Experience Survey here.

SEPHU Case Contact and Outbreak Management Team recognised for their quality education and training program   

The SEPHU Case Contact and Outbreak Management Team, are the STAR Award winners in our Excellence in Research, Teaching and Innovation category for Q4 2021.   The team was recognised for rapidly increasing their service capacity in response to the surge in COVID-19 cases in mid to late 2021, through swift recruitment, on-boarding and training, adopting a multimodal education and training program.

Sign up for the 10th Annual Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital! 

Join us for the 10th annual Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital. By walking with us, you can help us raise vital funds for children in our care.

Registration is free for Monash Health employees when you use discount coupon code: MHE2022.

In case you need extra incentive to sign up, early registrations will have a chance to win a night at Chadstone Hotel for two people and all Monash Health employees who sign up before 6 May will get a chance to win free coffee for a year!

For more information and to register, visit the Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital website.