Annual Report 2011 - Calvary Health Care Bethlehem

Calvary Health Care Bethlehem 2010 – 11 Annual Report 30
Projects & Partnerships
Video Conferencing
With working partnerships between our hospital and
local clinicians to provide services for neurology patients
across Victoria and palliative care patients in the southern
metro region and Gippsland, we have been developing
new technology to improve service delivery and capability
to support our statewide services.
A joint project with The Australian Center for Health
Innovation to scope the requirements for video
collaboration tools will facilitate further development of
our specialist consultative model of care for patients.
This technology will allow our progressive neurological
and palliative care services to have improved and
more timely contact without the need for travelling long
distances for staff, patients and their families. As part of
our collaborative care with other service providers we
already have collective team meetings with multiple staff
who phone in or use Skype to meet with patients and
clinicians in their community and residential setting.
eHealth
A step forward in improving quality of care and
streamlining delivery of services has led to the first stage
of a three year implementation of a completely paperless
record system.
iSOFT Medication Management MedChart is a web
based technology that supports medication management
including prescribing, monitoring and dispensing of
medication. This new technology allows fewer medication
errors therefore increasing patient safety, more effective
and supported decision making due to better access
to clinical information and improved work efficiency
because of immediate access to the medication chart
from any computer.
Key staff are currently implementing MedChart in their
departments and have been enthusiastic to use it as
they realise the efficiencies of the new system. As one
of our requirements being multiple staff accessibility to a
patient’s medical record at the same time from different
places, MedChart will definitely make this easier for
nurses, doctors and pharmacists.
Notre Dame University
Our new collaboration with Notre Dame University is
an exciting initiative for the hospital and confirms our
role in the provision of education and training of future
and existing health professionals. Final year medical
students now spend four weeks at Calvary Health Care
Bethlehem, with an emphasis on learning of the issues
related to end of life care and developing the skills
that will be required as junior doctors. It also provides
staff from both organisations the opportunity for further
teaching, education and research.
Gippsland Region
Palliative Care Consortium
Together with the palliative teams from Southern Health
and Peninsula Health, work has continued this year with
Gippsland Region Palliative Care Consortium to further
develop our specialist palliative consultancy model and
the provision of support to services in the region.
Weekly team meetings via teleconference and regular
monthly visits which include General Practitioners
support and health professional education are now well
established. Despite several challenges, the enthusiasm
and willingness of staff from all organisations to work
collaboratively to improve care for patients in the region
is gratefully acknowledged.
A new partnership
with Alfred Health in the
provision
of specialist
palliative
medical consultancy to
Cabrini Health has been in
response to a statewide shortage
of palliative specialists.