Congratulations to Monash Health Pathology for winning an inaugural Choosing Wisely Champions Award for 2022 for its commitment to championing the principles of “Choosing Wisely” within the Pathology Program.
Choosing Wisely Australia is a healthcare initiative that aims to improve the safety and quality of healthcare through the carefully considered selection of tests, treatments and procedures for patients. Awareness is raised around avoiding methods that may provide little or no benefit, or could be potentially harmful in a given situation.
Program Director, Pathology, Beena Kumar, credits the award to the multi-pronged approach taken by A Prof Maryza Graham, Microbiologist, A Prof Zhong Lu, Unit Head, Chemical Pathology, A Prof Sanjeev Chunilal, Unit head Laboratory Haematology and Dr Samar Ojaimi, Unit Head, Immunopathology with the scientific leads in their respective departments.
When it comes to ordering tests through Pathology, “It’s a matter of deciding what’s important, and what is not important – let us choose carefully, wisely and only what is necessary,” says Beena.
Renewed focus on pathology tests is all about best outcomes for patients and resources. Through the weekly CMO newsletter, the Pathology Choosing Wisely champions ran a series of articles to create awareness and promote conversations regarding unnecessary tests, test duplications, efficient use of resources, and improving patient safety and quality of care.
Further education for doctors was a primary tool and this was achieved by a presentation made by the team at the Monash Doctor’s Council meeting.
The Pathology Program is working with the EMR team towards enhancements to complement the commitment to sustained improvement. The coming enhancements to EMR will provide for automated alerts when detecting duplicated test requests.
Beena will be speaking at the Choosing Wisely Australia National Meeting on 3 May, where our achievement will be announced live. We wish Beena well in sharing the wonderful work of Monash Health Pathology.
Well done, team!
Photo – Monash Health Pathology team, Choosing Wisely Champions (left to right): Associate Professor Sanjeev Chunilal, Associate Professor Zhong Lu, Associate Professor Maryza Graham, Professor Beena Kumar
Approved by Anjali Dhulia