Message from the Chief Executive
As of today, we have:
- No COVID-19 positive inpatients
- No employees with COVID-19
- Five employees in precautionary quarantine
In this update, we cover:
- Restrictions in Victoria eased
- Interstate exposure sites
- Queen’s Birthday Honours
- Celebrating Refugee Week
- Annual Nursing and Midwifery Registration
- Microsoft 365
- Employee Workplace Declarations
- Quiet MET calls
- People Matter Survey
- Kingston and Moorabbin COVID-19 vaccination Pop-Ups
- EMR Security Warning – Cease use of QR Codes for employee passwords
- Emerging Researcher Fellowship
- Congratulate our STAR Award nominees
- Issues with your COVID-19 vaccination record?
- Updated guidance on leave after vaccination and higher risk employees
- My Health Record webinars
Changes to restrictions
In welcome news this week, Acting Premier James Merlino announced further changes to COVID-19 restrictions, which came into effect from 11:59pm last night and will last for at least two weeks.
These new settings apply to the entire state. They increase gathering sizes, at home, inside venues, and outside. Importantly, masks must still be worn inside. Read the full detail here.
Visitation
In line with the changes to restrictions, we are pleased to welcome visitors back into our health service. Our new visitor guidelines vary by area, so please check details for your area in the updated visitor restriction poster here.
Visitor restrictions mean difficult conversations for our teams, and I’d like to take a moment to thank those of you who have had to have these conversations in the interests of keeping our patients, colleagues and community safe.
PPE
Effective immediately, routine N95 use is no longer required in our Emergency Departments, frontline community health roles and vaccination clinics.
Our updated PPE compulsory standards are available here.
As always, it is important to assess the situation before any patient contact – if in doubt, don’t go without.
Working remotely
There are no changes to our remote working arrangements at this time.
Greater Sydney became a red zone from 1:00am Friday 25 June
At 1:00am Wednesday morning, red zones came into effect in seven local government areas in New South Wales – Sydney, Waverley, Woollahra, Canada Bay, Bayside, inner West, and Randwick, plus an orange zone in Wollongong. You can find advice for employees here.
New red zones have now come into effect from 1:00am this morning (Friday 25 June) for all of Greater Sydney and Wollongong.
Red zones are considered Tier 1 exposure sites – if you have visited a Tier 1 exposure site:
- Get tested immediately and on day 13 from the date of the exposure.
- Isolate for 14 days. Do not attend work.
- Call the COVID-19 employee hotline on 959 45815.
- Contact your manager.
- Contact the Victorian Department of Health on 1300 651 160.
If you test negative on day 13, you can return to work after day 14 if you have no symptoms.
Travel to NSW orange and red zones should be reconsidered. If you choose to travel to these areas and are unable to attend work as a result, you will need to take personal leave and include in your leave planning.
Exposure sites
Exposure sites can change quickly. Please make sure you stay across the lists of exposure sites and take appropriate action if you were present at the listed times.
- Current list of Victorian exposure sites
- Current list of New South Wales exposure sites
- Current list of ACT exposure sites
- Current list of Queensland exposure sites
Queen’s Birthday Honours
Last week, I shared with you that two of our colleagues, Professor Beverley Vollenhoven AM, and Professor Helena Teede AM, were acknowledged in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. I’m now pleased to share details of two more colleagues who were also recognised in this list.
Professor Stacy Goergen OAM received the Medal of the Order of Australia, for her service to radiology. Stacy is the Head of Obstetric Imaging, the Head of Fetal/Obstetric MRI, and the Head of Research in our Imaging department. Stacy also holds appointments at Monash University and at the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Radiologists.
Associate Professor Barry Rawicki OAM received the Medal of Order of Australia, for service to medicine as a rehabilitation specialist. Barry is the Medical Director of Paediatric Rehabilitation at Monash Children’s Hospital. Barry has held several notable appointments in rehabilitation, including the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, which is part of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Congratulations to Stacy and Barry for these well-deserved honours.
Celebrating Refugee Week
This week is Refugee Week, a time to reflect and celebrate the valuable contributions refugees make to Australian society.
Here at Monash Health, our Refugee Health and Wellbeing team have a long-standing commitment to improving the health of asylum seekers and refugees. The team have been instrumental in helping diverse families in our community through the pandemic. Their work has included conducting welfare checks on vulnerable families, monitoring and responding to health needs and reinforcing public health messages.
I encourage you to take some time this week to learn more about our refugee community and reflect on the role we all play in making Monash Health a welcoming and inclusive place.
Thank you for your ongoing effort and dedication.
Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive
Key messages
Have you applied to renew your Annual Nursing and Midwifery Registration?
Thank you to all those nurses and midwives who have already renewed their annual registration.
If you do not apply to renew your registration before Wednesday 30 June you will not be able to practise as a nurse or midwife. If you are planning not to renew a registration, please advise our credentialing team by emailing ecred@monashhealth.org
Renewing your registration can be done via the Australian Health Practitioner Regulations Agency (AHPRA) website.
If you have not received your renewal email or are experiencing issues when trying to renew your registration online, please contact AHPRA on 1300 419 495.
Microsoft 365 coming soon to Monash Health
To provide the best possible healthcare to our community, Monash Health is introducing Microsoft 365.
To learn more about what’s coming, you can watch Executive Director of Digital Health, Emilio Pozo, present at last Tuesday’s Employee Forum or head to the Microsoft website to find out more about the 365 platform.
Employee Workplace Declarations – time for action
If you haven’t completed your employee/student declaration form or your situation has changed since you last completed your declaration, please complete it today.
The declaration enables us to have a record of where all our employees work, whether solely for Monash Health or across multiple organisations. This includes working from home. Voluntary work also needs to be declared.
Monash Health moves to quiet MET calls
As of Monday 21 June, Monash Health moved to quiet MET calls for adult, paediatric and neonatal Medical Emergency Team (MET) calls. This change applies to Monash Medical Centre, Monash Children’s Hospital, Casey Hospital, Dandenong Hospital, Moorabbin Hospital and Kingston Centre.
It’s important to note:
- MET call and Code Blue teams remain unchanged.
- If there is no response to a MET call within 10 minutes, an overhead MET call will be announced.
- All Adult and Paediatric Code Blues will remain as overhead announcements. Neonatal Code Blues (previously quiet) will now ALSO be overhead announcements.
Read more about our move to quiet MET calls and the tiered approach to messaging employees here. If you have any questions, please contact the Deteriorating patient governance committee.
People Matter Survey – How is your program tracking?
The People Matter Survey is closing soon. Please take some time to share your thoughts. Click here to start the People Matter survey.
We are committed to listening to our employees and using the survey results to find out what we’re doing well, where we need to improve and how we can make Monash Health a great place to work.
You can check how your program is tracking daily by visiting the intranet. The program with the highest response rate when the survey closes gets $1 for every survey completed by a Monash Health employee to use on a project to benefit their program.
Kingston and Moorabbin COVID-19 vaccination Pop-Ups are here
Our Kingston Centre and Moorabbin Hospital COVID-19 vaccination clinics are now closed. Monash Health employees due to receive their second dose at Moorabbin or Kingston in the coming weeks will still receive these at ‘pop up’ clinics at both sites.
- Kingston Centre pop-up clinics will run on 29 June and 6 July, 9.30am to 5.00pm (closed 12 noon to 1.00pm).
- Moorabbin Hospital pop-up clinic will run on 30 June, 9.30am to 5.00pm (closed 12 noon to 1.00pm).
Please attend for your second dose at your original time and date. If your appointment times have changed, the vaccination clinic team will contact you directly to reschedule your booking. Find out more here.
EMR Security Warning – Cease use of QR Codes for employee passwords
The creation of QR codes for employee passwords represents a major password exposure risk and is NOT accepted or approved at Monash Health. You are fully responsible for ensuring the safety of your login credentials and password at all times. Learn more.
Emerging Researcher Fellowship
The Chief Executive has established the Monash Health Emerging Researcher Fellowship. The primary purpose of the Fellowship is to invest in early research career individuals with significant potential for a research career and for whom a fellowship would contribute to that end. The Fellowship is to encourage Monash Health employees to conduct a research project and to target emerging researchers.
The Emerging Researcher Fellowship provides a career development opportunity for those who do not have a proven record of research and to provide some salary support for employees in all health-related disciplines, including Allied Health, Medicine and Nursing.
In 2021, 10 Fellowships have been awarded. To learn more about our Fellows and their research, click here.
Congratulate our STAR Award nominees
Over the past two months, we have heard from our STAR winners at our weekly employee forums. These presentations have been well received and have allowed our award winners to share some insight into their work and receive the recognition from their colleagues they deserve.
While the awarding has stopped for quarter one, nominations for our quarter two STAR Awards are now open and close on Wednesday 30 June. If you know someone you would like to nominate to recognise the excellent work they do, complete a nomination today through the STAR Portal.
Read the complete list of our winners and nominees for this quarter’s STAR Awards here.
Issues with your COVID-19 vaccination record?
Many of our employees have taken up vaccination against COVID-19, and the majority of records are up-to-date and loaded onto the Monash Health BI Portal and the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).
However, some people have encountered issues with missing, incomplete or incorrect information on the Monash Health BI Portal or the AIR, or you have received an SMS or phone call asking you to book your second dose of the vaccine, when already fully vaccinated.
If this has happened to you, please fill in the Monash Health COVID-19 Vaccination Queries Form, and we will work to rectify the issues. Find out more here.
Updated Department of Health guidance on leave after vaccination and higher risk employees
The Department of Health has recently issued updated guidance on:
- Evidence requirements where an employee experiences an adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) and the cap on paid special leave available to an employee.
Please refer to: What leave can I take if I experience an adverse event after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine? for further details.
- Advice for higher risk employees who should be redeployed from areas where patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are being treated. Please refer to the coronavirus employee website – Higher Risk employees page for further details.
My Health Record webinars
The My Health Record system can transform the quality, value and experience of the healthcare system.
To get the best out of these Digital Health tools, The Australian Digital Health Agency has created three webinars:
All managers are requested to share these updates with their teams and discuss at stand-ups and handovers. Please print a copy and display it in communication books and on employee noticeboards.
As advice and information evolve, please consult the latest updates and visit the Department of Health and Human Services and Monash Health COVID-19 website for employees regularly for the latest.