Chief Executive Update – Friday 3 June 2022

Chief Executive Update – 3 June 2022

As of today, we have:

• 109 COVID-19 positive inpatients
• 159 employees with COVID-19
• 32 employees in precautionary quarantine
• 66 employees who are primary close contacts and working under public health exemption

In this update, we cover:

• Reconciliation Week – Be brave. Make change
• Working towards our new organisational arrangements
• Successful Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital
• Free flu vaccinations
• UKG Dimensions replacing Kronos

Reconciliation Week – it’s time to Be brave. Make change.

To mark Reconciliation Week, we have hosted Elders from the Bunurong Land Council who have visited three of our major sites to perform Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremonies.

We were joined by Uncle Mik Edwards, who is a proud Bunurong and Mutti Mutti man, a respected Bunurong Elder, as well as an educator, an expert in land management, and a medicine man.

Welcome to Country is an important Aboriginal tradition to welcome guests and neighbours to Country, and to demonstrate respect for Aboriginal people and their connection to Country.

Reconciliation Week is an opportunity for us all to aspire to this year’s theme of: “Be Brave. Make change.”

Earlier this week, Aboriginal Midwife Co-ordinator, Tracey Stephens, spoke about the importance of Reconciliation Week and how we can play an important role in helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel culturally safe 365 days a year as they come into a large health service.

This builds on a conversation we had with registered nurse Lisa Whittle, who spoke at last week’s employee forum about her team’s work on a fortnightly clinic called Healthy Koori Kids for Aboriginal children who are in out-of-home care.

In Australia, Aboriginal children are ten times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Aboriginal children, but in Victoria, Aboriginal kids are 16 times more likely to be in out-of-home care. Less than half are living with Aboriginal carers.

Read more about Healthy Koori Kids and the work the team does to build strong relationships with the children and help them access the health care they need, or listen to the discussion Lisa had with Chief Operating Officer, Martin Keogh, at our employee forum.

I ask you all to take the opportunity to reflect on our commitment to providing a supportive, respectful and welcoming environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at Monash Health.

Working towards our new organisational arrangements

Over recent weeks we’ve been speaking about changes to our organisational structure, to be better positioned for the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Since beginning this process, we have briefed all the program areas affected by these changes. I would like to thank everyone involved for the constructive way you have engaged with this process.

We have now closed the consultation phase of this work, and we thank you for your engagement and rich feedback. In line with the responses and input provided, we will now review and consider the feedback.

The final structure will be announced on 10 June, and we will work towards putting the new structure in place by 11 July 2022.

If you missed me speak about the changes at last Thursday’s employee forum, want to know more, or have any questions, you can visit our dedicated Organisational Structure SharePoint hub.

This hub is where you will find the change impact statement, organisational charts, position descriptions, FAQs, key contacts and presentation slides from our forums.

Successful Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in another successful Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital. More than 1,000 people – including many of you – donned walking shoes and took time to walk and raise well over $200,000.

It was great to have our first-ever combined in-person and virtual Walk, making all the necessary adjustments, having missed the last two years of an in-person walk.   Funds from this year’s Walk will support the delivery of Music and Child Life Therapy programs at Monash Children’s Hospital, which goes a long way to helping our youngest patients recover and overcome whatever obstacles they might be facing.

I’d like to thank everyone who walked and the team from the Foundation who work tirelessly to make this happen each year.

While we are excited to have already raised more than $200,000, our efforts aren’t yet over – anyone who would still like to can make donations to the Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital until 19 June 2022 by visiting the Walk for Monash Children’s Hospital website.

Free flu vaccinations

Flu numbers are significantly increasing in the community, so please take some time to have your free vaccination. Vaccination is available at Clayton, Casey, Dandenong, Moorabbin and Kingston and you can also head into our Sandown vaccination centre. It is an important step in keeping yourself and those you care for safe.

UKG Dimensions replacing Kronos

UKG Dimensions will replace Monash Health’s current version of Kronos. The transition will occur during July.

Complete your training by 8 July 2022.

Ahead of the change, we all need to complete training material on LATTE along with the relevant Getting Started Guide on the UKG Dimensions Knowledge Hub.

• All employees need to complete basic training on LATTE and the Getting Started Guide.
• Kronos managers need to, at a minimum, complete the LATTE training and Getting Started Guide which will take approximately 3-4 hours but can be broken up across multiple sessions.

Please prioritise your training to ensure you are familiar with the system and there are no timecard issues when it goes live.

Additional in-depth training material is also available under UKG Support Materials on the Knowledge hub.

Question and Answer sessions are available to support managers with any questions you may have.

Thank you for all that you do, and stay safe out there as we move into winter.

Andrew Stripp
Chief Executive