This week’s STAR Award winner was a project team who upgraded the way we power Monash Medical Centre. Congratulations to the Electrical Infrastructure Project team, who were announced as winners in the Exceptional Teamwork category by Chief Executive Andrew Stripp.
The project team is comprised of members from Engineering, Capital and Infrastructure and Site Management. This team was given the task of upgrading the electrical infrastructure of Monash Medical Centre (MMC), which dated back approximately 40 years.
The project has upgraded the backbone of supply across MMC, increased electrical supply to the site and addressed the risk of flooding events by relocating electrical infrastructure out of potential flood zones.
This was a project that required significant planning, coordination and communication. Engagement of clinical leaders was critical in planning for the shutdown of each area while ensuring that clinical operations could continue and be supported.
The team led walk arounds of every individual area, ran pilots of proposed works and test runs to ensure that the scope of works, mitigations and strategies were clearly articulated and agreed, risks identified and managed prior to any shutdowns progressing.
An upgrade of the electrical infrastructure in a hospital of this size and extent has not been managed in an operational site in Victoria. They navigated challenges, managed failing infrastructure and ensured that clinical risk was managed at all times.
The project has provided:
- Certainty around our infrastructure by providing new electrical backbone across the site, replacing aging and failing systems.
- An additional High-Voltage feed into the site, increasing overall supply and reliability of supply.
- Increased capacity for 30+ years.
- Increased generator capacity from 30 – 70%.
- Certainty around the safety of our infrastructure in flooding events, with infrastructure moved out of the basement and flood zone.
This was a major infrastructure project, unlike any undertaken before at Monash Health. Congratulations to the team for their exceptional teamwork in delivering this project.
If you know a team who has displayed exceptional teamwork, you can nominate them by heading to the STAR Portal. For more information about the STAR Program, you can visit the Monash Health COVID-19 website.
Approved by Karen Lowe