Hunter New England Health announces award winners
Hunter New England Health employees from across the region celebrated a year of achievement and innovation last night at the 2009 Achievement Awards Dinner.
The awards presented included the Quality Awards and Staff Achievement Awards.
The winners and finalists celebrated their achievements with Acting Chief Executive Tracey McCosker, who had the pleasure of congratulating the award winners.
“Hunter New England Health staff have achieved some outstanding results over the past year, it was a pleasure to congratulate all the winners and finalists on their achievements,” Ms McCosker said.
“It is important we recognise the many quality improvements and innovative projects that are being undertaken by our staff members to improve the health of our communities and the care we provide to our patients and clients."
The Quality Awards are designed to recognise teams of Hunter New England Health staff who have used quality management principles to significantly improve their service. The entry criteria are consistent with the NSW Health Awards and finalists are named in seven categories.
The Staff Achievement Awards are presented in eight categories, and these awards recognise Hunter New England Health staff and teams for the valuable contribution they have made to both the organisation and the community.
2009 Quality Award winners
Category: Promoting Health
Winner: Postcards reduce repeat suicide attempts, Department of Clinical Toxicology and Pharmacology, Calvary Mater Newcastle
Project description: This project looked at 772 patients aged over 16 years with deliberate self poisoning (attempted suicide) treated at the Calvary Mater Newcastle. It compared sending eight postcards over 12 months plus standard treatment with standard treatment alone. The postcard intervention reduced re-presentation of deliberate self poisoning by half over a 12-month period. A follow up assessment at 24 months showed there remained a significant reduction in the rate of repeat suicide attempts.
Category: Improving Quality and Safety
Winner: Pressure Ulcer Prevention, a Crystal ClearSolution Nursing and Midwifery Services
Project description: Pressure ulcers are painful, costly and a key indicator of quality nursing care. Increasing evidence highlighted that patients continued to develop pressure ulcers within HNE Health facilities and required transfer to community care. In response, the Crystal Model of change management was developed to identify and interconnect eight components pivotal to the prevention of pressure ulcers.
Category: Improving access to services, when, and where needed
Winner: Reducing the length of stay for women who present as outpatients
Delivery Suite, John Hunter Hospital
Project description: Access block is an increasing problem in delivery suites due to rising birth rates and more non-labouring women presenting with pregnancy concerns. Waiting times were excessive, as women were assessed by both a midwife and a medical officer. A project team investigated and proposed recommendations to improve the clinical process. Using advanced practice midwives, the average length of stay was reduced with no adverse events or complaints.
Category: Improving the patient experience
Winner: Improved recognition of pain and distress in oncology outpatient
Psycho-Oncology Service, Newcastle Mater Hospital
Project description: While it is normal for people with cancer to feel distressed, some patients have severe distress, which can be reduced with appropriate help. This project (QUICATOUCH) aims to decrease patients’ distress levels by alerting doctors when a patient is highly distressed or in pain so they can take appropriate action. Results from 5,000 patients on over 10,000 occasions since September 2007 show the overall percentage of distressed patients has decreased from 29% to 10%.
Category: Improving Primary Health and Care in the Community
Winner: Aboriginal Mothers & Babies Service Armidale Community Health Centre
Project description: The Aboriginal Mothers and Babies Service was designed to enhance the physical, psychological, social and emotional health and wellbeing of Aboriginal women and their infants through monitoring, education, early detection, intervention and referral strategies. There have been increased infant birth weights, increased breastfeeding and increased infant immunisation rates together with decreasing smoking rates.
Category: Building Partnerships for health
Winner: Marrung Tiddas Beautiful Sisters Taree Community Health – Sexual Assault Service
Project description: Marrung Tiddas – Beautiful Sisters is a therapeutic group for Aboriginal women who have experienced or whose family have been affected by sexual assault. Working with gatekeepers in the community is a key strategy towards reducing the isolation of victims of sexual assault and increasing access to crisis and long-term interventions thus reducing the impact of trauma.
Category: Making Smart Choices
Winner: Efficiency in Occupational Therapy Home Modifications Cessnock/Kurri Kurri Health Service, Lower Hunter Cluster
Project description: Occupational Therapists participated in a quality project to examine phone follow-up versus home visit follow-up of minor home modifications that had been prescribed by that OT service. The project demonstrated that phone follow up was accurate in 96% of cases, and that home visit follow up was not required. This information provides clear framework for OT practice, while ensuring effective utilisation of limited resources.
Category: Building the Health Workforce
Winner: Building the health workforce - RADIWEB Sharing Education
Hunter New England Imaging – Radiology Department JHH
Project description: The staff within HNE Imaging collectively gather enormous volumes of information through experience or from self-education activities. The size of our area health service as well as the divisional nature of the roles in healthcare are all factors that conspire to limit the opportunity for knowledge sharing. HNE Imaging refused to be constrained by these factors in its development of RADIWEB, which is an Intranet based tool that allows information to be shared and mandatory training to be undertaken online, across the breadth of the Area Health Service.
Category: Being Ready for New Risks and Opportunities
Winner: Exercise Forrest Gump prepares NSW for influenza pandemic
Hunter New England Population Health
Project description: Exercise Forrest Gump (XFG) was a week-long disaster exercise that simulated demands placed on the health system during a pandemic to test Australia’s preparedness for such an event. The exercise involved more than 300 people and was peer-evaluated by national and international experts. Various training tools, communication systems and comprehensive plans were used to manage an evolving scenario that placed participants under realistic conditions.
2009 Staff Achievement Award winners
Clinical Leader of the Year:
Dr Keith Howard, Director of Clinical Paediatrics, Maitland Hospital
Manager of the Year:
Debbie Bradley, Service Manager, Belmont Hospital
Healthcare Unit of the Year:
Integrated Aged Care Team, Tamworth / Nundle Community Health Service
Support Unit of the Year:
Skills and Simulation Centre, John Hunter Hospital
Outstanding Contribution of the Year:
Vanessa Janissen, Manager Operational Support Systems, HNE Imaging
Tomorrow’s Leader Award:
Nicole Martin, Clinical Leader Podiatry and Footcare Service, Greater Newcastle
Volunteers of the Year:
Palliative Care Bereavement Team Volunteers, Calvary Mater Newcastle
Prosperity Extended Excellence Award:
Leanne Critendon, Co-ordinator of the Northern Child Health Network
For more information about any of these people or projects, or to arrange interviews, please contact Tamaryn Curry or Gemma Smith on 4921 4801.
Contact: Gemma Smith
Phone: 4921 4501 or 0402 793 426