Portland District Health Annual Report 2008 - South West Alliance of ...

The Day Procedure Unit
enhanced our patient flow
and made the peri-operative
experience a journey of
increased holistic support.
Central Sterilisation Service Department staff members
Pat Leyonhjelm and Susan Bailey Div 2 Nurse
OPERATING SERVICES
This year we consolidated new practices and procedures
and upskilled our operating services staff.
We retained three graduate nurses for peri-operative
nursing, employed an experienced peri operative nurse
educator and enrolled two staff into the postgraduate
Peri-operative Diploma course.
Thanks to generous government funding, our endoscopy
equipment was upgraded to a state of the art system
that complements our new endoscopy procedure room.
The new eight-bed Day Procedure Unit was opened
in October. This is a well-equipped facility with modern
equipment to ensure safe, high quality patient care.
This unit enhanced our patient flow and made the
peri-operative experience a journey of increased
holistic support.
The Pre-Admission Clinic, now located within the
Day Procedure Unit, is amongst a number of initiatives
implemented to ensure a smooth, uneventful process
of risk analysis, pre operative tests and post operative
support for our patients.
The Central Sterilisation Services Department (CSSD)
was equipped with a new modern instrument washer.
Workload within the department has increased by
30% due to increased activity from the Dental
Department as well as external sterilisation demand.
Validation for CSSD according to Standards ASNZ 4187
was successfully obtained in June 2008.
MEDICAL IMAGING SERVICES
Two significant changes were made during the year.
The Board of Management gave approval for a $500,000
equipment upgrade of the medical imaging department
with the purchase a new 16 slice Philips CT machine and
a colour Doppler ultrasound machine. The new 16 slice
Philips CT machine will deliver a very fast 20 frames per
second reconstruction time. The ultrasound machine
comes equipped with a high resolution colour monitor,
and fine detail probes which are capable of detecting
small splinters and foreign bodies, as well as small tears
in tendons. Colour Doppler ultrasound will image blood
vessels, and Portland District Health now offers a full
range of vascular services including leg arteries and
veins, and neck and arm vessels as well as all routine
ultrasound examinations.
We are especially indebted to the estate of the late
Mrs Glenys Simmons which made this radiology upgrade
possible
The Bendigo Radiology Service, replacing Western
District Radiology Services was awarded a five year
contract for the provision of radiology services to
Portland Distrct Health. The Bendigo Radiology Service
has provided both public and private medical imagining
services throughout central, northern and south
west Victoria for over 25 years. The new service will
incorporate a teleradiology service 24/7.
In the coming 12 months we will continue to explore and
develop more services for the community of Portland,
resulting in increased activity within our department.
22 Portland District Health