Chief Executive COVID-19 Update: 11 February 2022

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update – 11 February 2022

As of today, we have: 

• 82 COVID-19 positive inpatients
• 127 employees with COVID-19 
• 72 employees in precautionary quarantine
• 62 employees who are primary close contacts and working under public health exemption

In this update, we cover: 

• Mandatory vaccination third dose deadlines
• Compassionate visiting
• Rescheduled accreditation date announced
• Hospital Surge Support Allowance extended
• Walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations now available for children
• Community Fast Track Response is LIVE
• New employee resources for social barriers or complex patient discharges
• Calling non-clinical employees to support your frontline colleagues
• Changes to RAT collection point at Wright Street
• How we’re using RATs for our patients and employees
• Complete the new Cybersecurity module in Latte
• Outdoor break areas reminder 
• Half-price memberships at Healthwise Fitness for Monash Health employees

The downward trend of COVID-19 hospitalisations has continued – an encouraging sign, which means we can continue to plan towards carefully resuming services.

We are continuing to plan non-COVID activities, but with a clear awareness that we need to achieve a balance, given our ongoing COVID-19 response, the need for people to take leave, and the long-term pressure on our health service.

As we plan how and when we bring more of our services back online, we will continue to base our decisions on inpatient demand, clinical needs, and workforce availability. We will also continue to work with our private hospital partners to increase the number of surgical patients being operated on in private hospital settings.

Mandatory vaccination third dose deadlines fast approaching

Please take action to get your booster or provide your evidence.  If you have issues with the evidence form, you can email evidence of your vaccination to covidadministration@monashhealth.org

Visit the COVID-19 vaccination hub to read more and view our FAQs.

Compassionate visiting

During the pandemic, visitor restrictions have been required to limit the spread of the virus. However, we must balance the risk of transmission with compassionate patient and family centred care.

We want to ensure patients are not alone:

• in circumstances where a patient is likely to be distressed and need to be with family and friends, such as after a ​significant new diagnosis such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and cardiac conditions, as well as for patients with dementia, delirium or requiring ​a significant treatment intervention,
• during extended hospital stays (more than seven days),
• on culturally significant days,
• on ​personally significant days such as patients’ or ​immediate family members’ birthdays and wedding/civil union anniversaries.

So, we have expanded our definition of a ‘support person’ to encompass these situations and actively facilitate visits in such situations.

One support person may visit for one hour, once per day (unless otherwise negotiated with the Nurse Manager). ​Two people may visit for end-of-life support for two hours.

In addition, Monash Health’s virtual visiting program exists to keep everyone safe and connected when family and friends are unable to come into the hospital. For more information, see the virtual visiting resources on PROMPT. 

Accreditation rescheduled to August 2022

Working closely with the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), our National Standards accreditation assessment has been rescheduled to 15 – 19 August 2022.

Accreditation is an opportunity to showcase the work we do for our patients, consumers and each other, each and every day. While we always remain accreditation-ready, we have agreed the August date, in order to give the organisation and our teams some breathing room before undergoing our assessment.

Thank you, as always, for the role you play in helping us provide excellent care to our community.

Andrew Stripp

Chief Executive

Key Messages

Hospital Surge Support Allowance extended (until 31 March 2022)

The Victorian Government’s Hospital Surge Support Allowance has been extended to 31 March 2022. The eligibility criteria remain the same. You can read more about the allowance on our COVID-19 website for employees.

Walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations now available for children

Monash Health is now offering walk-in vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11 and people aged 12 years and above at our Sandown and Cranbourne vaccination centres.

Employees can now walk in with their children, in addition to household members aged 12+ years, at any of the below vaccination clinics and receive priority access to a COVID-19 vaccination:

• Sandown Racecourse Vaccination Centre, seven days a week from 9am to 4pm
• Cranbourne Turf Club Vaccination Centre, seven days a week from 9am to 4pm
• Dandenong Plaza Vaccination Clinic, seven days a week from 9am to 4pm

COVID-19 vaccination bookings are also available at Clinic D, Monash Medical Centre for household members, including families and children, of employees.

More information is available here.

Community Fast Track Response is LIVE

Monash Health’s Community Team Fast Track Response is up and running. Focussing on nursing, Allied Health, children’s and priority populations support, Fast Track is available seven days a week from 8.30am – 5pm.

To best utilise Community resources and streamline the referral pathway, referrals to Community are being centrally assessed and allocated through the Community Fast Track Response. These are short term care solutions that will enable co-ordination of workflow and rapid allocation of resources specific to the immediate needs of patients.

Send all referrals to cb.communityreferrals@monashhealth.org or call the Fast Track Response Hotline on 03 8572 5630.

Full details, referral guidelines, forms and contact details are all available on the Community Fast Track Response page.

New employee resources for social barriers or complex patient discharges

The timely discharge of patients who have finished their inpatient treatment and are clinically ready to go home is vital to ensure we can continue to provide care to all those who need it most.

We appreciate that there may be social barriers to discharge at times, even when a patient and their family are made aware it is medically appropriate to be discharged.

There may also be instances where discharge is more complex and requires continued care post-discharge through a community health or our healthcare partners, such as GPs.

We have produced patient and employee resources to guide conversations and actions that enable a smooth discharge process, to support our clinicians and clinical-support teams. These include discussion guides, decision flowcharts and patient information for the point of admission or at discharge.

Find out more and download resources at Employee COVID Website Model of Care Resources.

Calling non-clinical employees to support your frontline colleagues – EOI process now open

Non-clinical employees interested in undertaking a full or partial temporary reassignment to support our frontline colleagues, can now register their interest in new Operations Support roles.

In the new Operations Support roles, you will support frontline teams in a range of areas. These are not clinical roles but will support both clinical and non-clinical areas.

Remuneration will be as per your substantive role, and you may also be eligible for the Government Hospital Surge Support Allowance, depending on your placement.

You will be fully supported, and your duties drawn from a core activity list that provides practical assistance and functions to our care/support teams. You will be supporting general operations and do not need a clinical background or clinical qualifications.

If you are interested in undertaking a full or partial temporary reassignment as part of the pandemic response, please talk to your line manager about whether they can release you and then complete this Expression of Interest form.

Changes to RAT collection point at Wright Street

Due to low demand, the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) collection point at 20 Wright Street for symptomatic employees will close from 5:30pm on Friday 11 February 2022.

Monash Health employees who are symptomatic can still receive priority access to RATs at our nearby Clayton Drive Through Screening Clinic as well as our Dandenong Screening Clinic. Read more here.

If you are asymptomatic and require a COVID-19 test, you can read more about our priority onsite testing for asymptomatic employees here.

How we’re using Rapid Antigen Tests and documenting inpatient RAT results in the EMR

As more Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) become available, we are deploying them in different ways to ensure the appropriate level of risk management for healthcare workers, patients and visitors.

Last week, we made changes to how we approach screening for symptomatic and asymptomatic employees, and our approach for inpatients and outpatients.

For details of when to use a RAT, when to use a PCR and how the results should be documented in the EMR, please see the COVID-19 website for employees.

Complete the new Cybersecurity module in Latte

Cybersecurity awareness helps keep our organisation, our patients, and ourselves safe from digital attacks.

That’s why we’ve introduced a new Cybersecurity module in LATTE. This is mandatory for all Monash Health employees to complete annually, so get online to complete your training as soon as you can. Find out more here.

Outdoor break areas
Outdoor break areas have been set up across our sites to ensure you have spaces to take your breaks safely.

Tea and break rooms pose an increased risk when people remove their PPE to eat and drink. Therefore, we recommend you take breaks in outdoor break areas to minimise risk.

There are dedicated break areas for employees who are close contacts returning to work under the exemption for Health Care Workers.

Please take appropriate measures to minimise your risk, even when eating outside, by maintaining social distancing, not sharing food, and checking in with a QR code where possible. 

Healthwise Fitness offering half-price memberships for employees

To support employees to achieve their health and fitness goals, Healthwise Fitness is now offering half-price gym memberships for Monash Health employees until the end of June 2022.

The fee for memberships will drop to $7.50 per week for all new members, and existing members will automatically receive a 50% discount until the end of June. Read more