Patients the winners of another SWH Victoria-first
Overseas, Releasing Time to Care – The Productive Ward, as the initiative’s known, has halved handover times and doubled the time available for providing direct care. Impressive results that have taken participating health services just 12 months to achieve.
One of those health services is New Zealand’s largest, the Waitemata District Health Board. Servicing a population of 530,000 (five times the number of people South West Healthcare is responsible for), its Operations Manager for Acute & General Medicine, Marion Dixon, is a Releasing Time to Care Master Trainer.
She’s just spent two days training two dozen SWH frontline staff to identify and address more efficient ways of carrying out everyday nursing-related processes that frequently, and unnecessarily, consume precious time and energy.
‘A nurse is interrupted, on average, 100 times a shift and many of these inquiries are not necessary if procedures are put in place,’ says Marion. ‘This program works well because it’s a bottom-up approach, in that staff on the floor have a say on how the hospital runs. It’s a way of delivering higher quality care to patients with no extra resources.’
And she should know. Her health service, after implementing Releasing Time to Care – The Productive Ward, has increased direct care time from 28 per cent to above 50.
SWH Redesigning Health Care Manager Leanne McCann needs no convincing. She got to witness the program’s success firsthand while on her Deakin-Health Super Leadership in Nursing (Rural) Award study tour of the UK last year. She’s particularly excited that SWH’s Psychiatric Services Division is the first mental health service in Australia to adopt the initiative – proven, via two major international evaluations, to empower staff while delivering safe, dignified and reliable services to patients.
Officially welcoming Marion to South West Healthcare on Thursday, Director of Nursing Sue Morrison said directors of the board and executive saw huge benefits in implementing the program, describing it as ‘a perfect fit’ with the organisation’s strategic direction goals.
‘We’re expecting big things to come out of this,’ she said. ‘Reflecting on whether there are better ways of doing things to improve satisfaction, outcomes and the patient’s experience makes for happier patients and better job satisfaction. This is the start of a new and exciting journey.’
Indeed it is. South West Healthcare now has Victoria’s first acute-care Improvement Facilitators and Australia’s first mental-health Improvement Facilitators thanks to a management that values staff opinions and expertise.
By the time South West Healthcare’s new $115 million Warrnambool hospital opens in May next year, these 24 staff – a mix of nurses, ward clerks and quality, safety and education managers – will have led the charge to roll-out the program at both the organisation’s Warrnambool and Camperdown hospitals.
photo 1 Director of Nursing Sue Morrison (left) and Master Trainer Marion Dixon flank four of Victoria’s first Improvement Facilitators: Acute Care Unit associate unit manager Michelle Lyons and unit manager Jill Hallinan, quality manager Karen Harrison and registered nurse Vicki Brebner.
photo 2 Part-way through the international training.
photo 3 Expecting big things to come out of SWH implementing the Productive Ward initiative is (from left) Redesigning Health Care Manager Leanne McCann, Director of Nursing Sue Morrison and Master Trainer Marion Dixon.