Annual Report - Northern Health

Our Achievements cont’dThe Department of Health funded Workforce innovation grantin Orthoptics to trial and implement Orthoptics Led clinics inthe areas of cataract and diabetes assessment and monitoringhas led to the development of competency packages, incollaboration with La Trobe University, for Orthoptists workingin each of the clinical areas. These packages will be widelyavailable to other state and national health organisations foruse, and work is underway to ensure inclusion in the Orthopticsundergraduate teaching program.Inter-professional Learning project, auspiced by Northern Healthon behalf of the Northern Metropolitan Clinical PlacementNetwork (NMCPN), is drawing on Northern Health Allied Healthexperience and expertise in helping health professionals tolearn with, from and about one another to improve collaborationand the quality of care. The project offers workshops for staffacross the NMCPN on how to establish and facilitate interprofessionaleducation activities and programs with healthprofessional students. The project is also supporting fouragencies to establish pilot inter-professional student educationactivities in 2012-13.Allied Health was successful in attracting grants for researchand evaluation in a range of clinical and practice areas andstaff have presented nationally and internationally at a varietyof health professional conferences during 2011-12 including:dietetics, physiotherapy, podiatry, speech pathology andinter-professional learning, health professional education,gerontology, wound management and forums such as thehealth round table. This active contribution to the wider healthcare knowledge base through conference presentation andpublication is evidence of a dynamic and growing healthservice.Using Department of Health funding, implementation plansfor two social work initiatives have been developed. The firstinitiative improves communication when a child at risk presentsto Northern Health; the second documents parental interactionswith children at risk in the hospital. Both initiatives are to beconsidered for inclusion in the best practice guidelines for acutehealth services by the Department of Health.Research WeekNorthern Health was again an active participant in ResearchWeek held in November 2011, with opportunities for staff andstudents to showcase their research across the organisationand the wider community. With daily guest speakers and 55poster presentations from staff, this year’s focus was Aged Careresearch, which is also a Northern Health research priority.Attestation on Compliance with Australian/New Zealand Risk Management StandardI, Greg Pullen certify that Northern Health has risk management processes in place consistent with the Australian/NewZealand Risk Management Standard and an internal control system is in place that enables the executives to understand,manage and satisfactorily control risk exposures. The audit committee verifies this assurance and that the risk profile ofNorthern Health has been critically reviewed within the last 12 months.Mr Greg PullenAccountable OfficerNorthern Health20 August 201211/12 Northern Health annual report 33