Chief Executive COVID-19 Update: 19 November

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update – 19 November 2021

As of today, we have:

• 57 COVID-19 positive inpatients
• 40 employees with COVID-19
• 63 employees in precautionary quarantine

In this update, we cover:

• Changes to restrictions
• Changes to contact tracing and quarantine
• COVID-19 third dose
• Surveillance testing changes
• CHRIS21 and HR21 Employee Self Service remain offline
• Tune in to celebrate our long‐serving colleagues
• Monash Health’s 2021 Annual General Meeting and Open Board Meeting
• Celebrating with colleagues
• Providing evidence of your vaccination status
• International travel
• EMR Update: Pharmacy View updates and improvements
• In an emergency, dial 22 22
• Changes to Code Blue and MET call criteria

Changes to restrictions

Yesterday, the Premier announced a further easing of COVID-19 restrictions as the state approaches the 90 per cent vaccination milestone. This is a remarkable achievement, one that you have played an important part in, individually and as part of Victoria’s health service.

There are now no restrictions on the number of people who can visit your home, and density limits for hospitality and retail venues have been removed. Fully vaccinated people can attend weddings, funerals and places of worship without density limits.

Mask use

Masks are still required in sensitive settings, including healthcare, aged care, retail, and public transport.

Aged care visitation

Residents at care facilities can now have up to five visitors per day, including dependents, for any reason.

Non-vaccinated visitors must wear a mask at all times. If visiting outdoors is not possible, they may only visit in the resident’s room.

Hospital visitation

There are no changes to visitor restrictions in our hospitals and mental health facilities at this time. We will continue to review restrictions based on the latest public health advice.

A comprehensive list of changes to restrictions can be found here.

Changes to furlough, quarantine and testing requirements

Self-quarantine requirements for COVID-19 cases and close contacts have been reduced – in the broader community and some situations within Monash Health.

Our updated quarantine and testing requirements are below:

Health Care Workers

	Monash Health requirements (if double vaccinated)	Broader Community Requirement
Primary Close Contact: Household contact	7 days furlough and negative PCR test on Day 6 before returning to work.	7 days quarantine if fully vaccinated 14 days quarantine if not fully vaccinated
Non-Household contact	Surveillance testing while at work and negative PCR test on Day 6	Negative PCR on Day 0.
High-risk internal (Monash Health) exposure	7 days furlough and negative PCR on Day 6 before returning to work.	Negative PCR on Day 0.
Low-risk internal (Monash Health) exposure	Surveillance testing while at work and negative PCR on Day 6	Nil
International Travel	7 days furlough and negative PCR on Day 6 before returning to work.	Nil

 

Patients

	Monash Health requirements	Broader Community Requirement
Household contact (fully vaccinated)	7 days sCOVID and negative PCR on Day 6	7 days quarantine
Household contact (not fully vaccinated)	14 days sCOVID and negative PCR on Day 13	14 days quarantine
Nursing Home / Aged care resident following outbreak in the facility (vaccinated)	7 days sCOVID and negative PCR on Day 6	7 days quarantine
Nursing Home / Aged care resident following outbreak in the facility (non-vaccinated)	14 days sCOVID and negative PCR on Day 13	14 days quarantine
Non-Household contact	sCOVID  7 (fully vaccinated) / 14 days (non vaccinated)	Negative PCR on Day 0 and Rapid Antigen Test recommended at 7 days before entering any sensitive setting.

Changes to contact tracing

Exposure sites will no longer be published. Instead, a new alert function in the Service Victoria app will be used to notify patrons of higher-risk venues where positive cases have been present and advise them to get tested. Contact tracing within Monash Health will continue as previously advised.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive

Key Messages

COVID-19 third dose

We are seeing steady demand for third dose immunisation, which we expect to increase as more people become eligible six months after their second vaccine dose.

If you have reached this milestone, you can make a booking or walk in at one of our high-volume vaccination centres, including Sandown Racecourse or Cranbourne Turf Club, or one of our employee vaccination clinics at our hospital sites.

If you are looking for more information about third doses, Professor Rhonda Stuart gave an informative presentation at a recent employee forum, which you can watch here.

Surveillance testing changes – effective Monday 22 November 2021

In response to the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community, our PPE use and our high vaccination rates, our surveillance testing process will change, effective 22 November 2021.

Asymptomatic employees in our surveillance program will now be asked to undertake PCR saliva tests three times per week with less than 72 hours between tests.

There will no longer be a need for daily testing or nose throat swabs in our asymptomatic surveillance program.

Following an exposure event, employees undertaking surveillance testing will follow the regime defined in the contact tracing assessment advised by Infection Prevention.

Symptomatic employees should continue to seek a PCR nose/throat test from an offsite testing clinic.

This simpler approach to surveillance testing will maintain the sensitivity and frequency of our testing program while also continuing to provide reassurance to team members.

CHRIS21 and HR21 Employee Self Service remain offline

CHRIS21, our HR and payroll system, remains offline following a significant disruption experienced by the external technology provider. The impacts are:

• HR21 Employee Self Service is unavailable, impacting the ability to view payslips or update personal details.

The following applications have not been updated with Chris21 data:

• Data Warehouse
• BI Dashboard
• Mercury
• Kronos
• Kronos Warehouse (SQL)
• Payroll Warehouse (SQL)
• IT termination reports from Chris 21 (IT will be notified via the eMercury termination process)
• UNIFY – Chris 21 New Hire
• Latte

Work is underway to restore system access, and we appreciate your patience.

Please refrain from contacting the payroll team during this outage. The team answering the phones also have no access to CHRIS 21.

Tune in to celebrate our long‐serving colleagues

Last night we celebrated the second of our annual Length of Service events, celebrating Monash Health team members who reached 15 years of service this year.

Employees and volunteers with 20 and 25 years’ service will be acknowledged on

Tuesday 23 November, while those with 30‐years’ service and above will be celebrated on Wednesday 24 November.

Further information, including the list of recipients and how you can join the live events, can be found here.

Monash Health’s 2021 Annual General Meeting and Open Board Meeting

You’re invited to Monash Health’s 2021 Annual General Meeting and Open Board Meeting, which will be held on Thursday 2 December at 2:00pm. 

Join us to hear how we’re listening to our community, consumers and partners to embed a new approach to public health.

To learn more and register, please visit www.monashhealth.org/agm

Celebrating with colleagues

With the end of the year fast approaching and restrictions eased, many teams will be looking forward to getting together to celebrate.

Our 100 per cent vaccination status provides excellent protection. However, it is not a guarantee that you will not get or transmit COVID-19. So here are a few tips to reduce the risk of infection and help keep yourself safe.

• Follow the updated State-wide COVID-Safe Settings.
• Record the date and time of the event and keep a list of attendees to assist with contact tracing if it is needed.
• Avoid shared food platters.
• Make sure QR check-ins, where possible, are used.
• Maintain physical distancing.

Due to the sensitive nature of the health care setting, social gatherings cannot be held at Monash Health premises.

Providing evidence of your vaccination status

Last month the Chief Health Officer released directions on mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers. In line with our commitment to the directions, we are now required to collect evidence of the employee’s fully vaccinated status by 15 December 2021.

If you were vaccinated at a Monash Health vaccination clinic (onsite at Monash Health, St John of God Berwick Hospital, Cranbourne Turf Club, Sandown Racecourse or a pop-up clinic) and were identified as an employee, we already have evidence of your vaccination status, and no further action is required.

Over the coming weeks, we will be contacting those employees we don’t currently hold evidence for and asking you to provide proof of your vaccination status via the COVID-19 Vaccination Evidence Form. This evidence is required, even if you have previously provided a declaration stating you have been vaccinated.

International travel

If you intend to travel overseas, regardless of destination, please be aware that you cannot currently enter a hospital site until seven days after your arrival back into Australia (following a negative swab on day six).

You will be required to take additional annual leave to accommodate the seven-day requirements in your travel arrangements.

EMR Update: Pharmacy View updates and improvements

The Pharmacy View in the EMR is being updated and implemented across our sites.   The new Pharmacy View contains interactive components that enable pharmacists to document pharmacy-related documentation in the patient record while viewing the patient’s information within one view.

Learn about our staggered rollout and new Pharmacy documentation processes here.

In an emergency, dial 22 22 

Our new internal number for emergencies, 22 22, is now live across all Monash Health sites.

This change has been made in partnership with the Department of Health to standardise internal emergency numbers across Victoria. Visit our website for more information on the change, including FAQs and manager responsibilities. You can also find links to the updated procedure documents on our Emergency Management intranet site.  Updated RACE cards are currently being reprinted due to a late amendment and will be distributed shortly.

Changes to Code Blue and MET call criteria

Our criteria for Code Blue and MET (Medical Emergency Team) calls have been simplified to ensure we have the right team, in the right place, for the right reason.

These criteria apply to any person suffering a medical emergency on-site – whether patient, employee, contractor, university staff or visitor, whether they are on a ward or elsewhere. Read more