The Royal North Shore Ryde service Aged Care Rapid Response team
CELEBRATING STAFF SUCCESS Three years ago Clinical Nurse Consultant Therese Jepson and Staff Specialist Geriatrician Dr James
place on 15 March. Staff were encouraged to dress up wearing colourful socks or ribbons, for example, and match with a colleague, but discretion was left up to the teams to get creative. Nurse Manager of the Division of Surgery and Anaesthesia Sophie Lange said the initiative is about improving practice and education for patients and staff. “Initially we rolled this out as a pilot to a few aged care facilities but then COVID hit, where no one could go in and provide care to these patients and the only way was to come to hospital.” ‘The ARRT of Telehealth’ patient doesn’t unnecessarily need to be transferred to hospital.” Initially the team piloted the initiative with a few aged care facilities, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit they were able to offer it to all aged care facilities across the district. Therese said there was a lot of perseverance and hard work to get the project across the line. “It took a lot of persistence and hard work, but it has all paid off,” she said. “We are now seeing some of the avoidable admissions to hospital start to decrease.”
“Matching March is all about spreading the word about the importance of checking patient identification prior to all care and treatment,” she said. The RNSH executive team visited many departments and units wearing matching items. The most ‘matched’ department was awarded to 8D (pictured on front cover) for their clear message and inclusion of the whole team. project won a Northern Sydney Local Health District Quality and Improvement Local Solutions Award. Applications are now open for the 2022 Quality and Improvement Awards. The awards celebrate the excellence of staff and put a spotlight on the hard work and delivery of programs and services which have made a real difference to patients and their families. Therese and James encourage others to submit an application. “It’s so important to share our successes, so we can learn from one another and make sure we truly are providing the highest quality care to our patients and consumers,” James said. Application forms and further information can be found here or contact nslhd- awards@health.nsw.gov.au
identification this March and is calling on staff and patients to make it front of mind. Matching March is an initiative by the Patient Identification Taskforce and aims to raise awareness about the importance of correct patient identification. As part of Matching March, ‘Match with a Mate’ day took “It also allowed us to take action straight away, rather than having to jump in a car, drive to see the patient and then work out what’s going on. “It speeds up the time where the care can be provided to the patient and it means the Hardy set out on a mission to improve care for older patients in northern Sydney. Therese and James introduced the use of videoconferencing in the the Royal North Shore Ryde service Aged Care Rapid Response team (ARRT) to treat patients in their homes. “Telehealth enabled us to the see the patient straight up and know immediately whether they required to come into hospital or not,” James said.
Matching March at RNSH Royal North Shore Hospital is focused on patient
WWW.NSLHD.HEALTH.NSW.GOV.AU
5
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online