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Responding To The Victorian Covid-19 Crisis At Mulgrave And Epping Private Hospitals
With Victoria being declared a ‘state of disaster’ and Stage Four restrictions introduced for metropolitan Melbourne from August 2nd, (Stage Three in regional Victoria), the state is currently battling the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stage Four restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne has meant the broad temporary closure of many businesses and industries, with only ‘essential’ workers and certain industries permitted to work. A curfew of 8pm, a 5km radius for exercising and shopping, and mask wearing (state-wide) is also mandated.
With Aged Care facilities in Victoria suffering the highest cumulative caseloads of COVID-19, there is a huge focus on supporting those most vulnerable in the community.
To enable the Victorian health system to support COVID-19 management, all non-urgent elective surgeries have been suspended, with only Category 1 and urgent Category 2 procedures permitted.
Like other areas of the country, Healthe Care is engaged in a Comprehensive Agreement between the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and other private hospital operators, established to ensure the continuity of patient care, where it is needed most. As a result, Healthe Care's Victorian hospitals have in recent weeks, stepped up to support the community through these challenging times.
Responding To Community Need At Mulgrave Private
From the outset of the pandemic, Mulgrave Private Hospital formed a pandemic steering committee, chaired by Deputy CEO Maree Wilson.This committee has been instrumental in ensuring the safety of the hospital community by implementing robust processes, making important decisions and keeping the community informed of the hospital's state. There are many strict protocols in place, including:
• Temporarily ceasing Visiting Hours
• Making mask wearing mandatory across the hospital
• Thermal testing is utilised for entry screening
• Mulgrave Private Hospital is running its own on-site pre-operative COVID-19 test clinic for all patients scheduled for an upcoming admission under a general/local anaesthetic or IV sedation (on-site pre-operative COVID-19 testing is also being
provided at Healthe Care's Hobson Healthcare facilities in Werribee and Sydenham).
At the end of July, at the request of the Victorian Health Department, Mulgrave Private Hospital also admitted 21 residents from Outlook Gardens Aged Care and Christian Retirement Village in response to the Aged Care facility having recorded multiple COVID-19 cases. The arrangements for medical management and care of the residents is being coordinated by a team of specialists, supported by the wonderful staff on the Mulgrave Private's Harvie Ward. "The team’s mission has been to do its utmost to ensure the patients' safety, continuity of care and comfort, as well as ensuring that their families and loved ones receive regular communication from both the patients and our staff," said Maree.
Recommissioning Epping Private Hospital
While the team At Mulgrave Private Hospital have been focused on supporting Aged Care clients, the Victorian leadership team, driven by Kieron Martin, Executive Manager, has concurrently been working to recommission the former Epping Private Hospital facility, to provide capacity to assist the community in these unprecedented times.
Epping Private Hospital was closed at the end of March this year, but with the modern 24 bed facility vacant, Healthe Care has been working closely with DHHS to re-open the facility to meet the needs of the Victorian Aged Care community. Within weeks of being asked by the Victorian government to stand-up the facility, a high quality team led by newly appointed CEO/DCS Dean Palmby has been recruited, with over 50 nurses, doctors and support staff from across Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales.
The hospital now boasts 24 beautifully furnished single bed rooms, each with an en-suite, providing a contemporary environment which meets the stringent requirements required to provide high quality healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic environment. The hospital currently hosts COVID Positive patients who have transferred from residential aged care facilities. Kieron says, “We are absolutely committed to do all that we can to support the Melbourne and wider Victorian community during the pandemic. Epping Private Hospital has been re-born with new a new team, new furniture and equipment and a new cohort of patients.”
Although demand for access to the beds was intense, the team at Epping Private Hospital and our Healthe Care Risk & Quality team had to ensure that we met all required operating standards before undergoing a rigorous review from the Department of Health and Human Services.
ONLINE COVID-19 SCREENING PLATFORM TRIALED AT MAITLAND PRIVATE HOSPITAL
Maitland Private Hospital was one of the first sites to trial the new Healthe Care COVID-19 pre-screening platform, rolling out the QR code screening on Monday August 10. The team reported a positive experience with the first few days of using the app. Narelle Hewlett, who is managing the screening at Maitland Private, said overall the feedback had been great.
“We ve had a few patients and visitors arrive on-site and find that they have very old phones which are not compatible with the QR code, so it’s been important to have the paper screening forms still available. Other patients have not been able to scan the code even with newer phones. Some of them have had to download the QR code reader app from the app store, while others need to go into their camera settings and turn on the ‘Scan QR Codes’ option.
One of the key benefits of the platform is that it remembers the information, so for staff or visitors entering multiple days in a row, all of their details are pre-populated and they just need to answer the screening questions each day. Although there will be visitors and patients who need assistance with the new screening process, we’re grateful that we’ll save time and paper in the long term.”