Recent research and quality improvement projects have been conducted in departments across the organisation, including Emergency Department, Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP), Home Assessment and Rehabilitation Team (HART), Surgical Unit, Outpatients Department, Medical Unit, Residential Aged Care, Orthopaedic Unit, Home Nursing Support Services.
The focus of our work is on contemporary health care issues, service development and quality improvement.
Our research projects are designed to benefit your staff, patient, client and their families.
- Project proposals & submissions for funding
- Data analysis and reporting
- Project planning & implementation
- Support for ETHIC’s applications
- Evaluation
- Research design
- Report writing
- Process mapping
- Finding evidence to support ideas
- Literature reviews
Examples of recent research:
Long Stay Older Patients (LSOP) initiative
$100,000 per year, funded by DHS, 3 years
The Long Stay Older Patients (LSOP) initiative is funded by DHS until 2010, and involves six health services across the Loddon Mallee Region. The LSOP initiative builds Bendigo Health’s position as the Centre for Promoting Health Independence (CPHI).
The LSOP initiative focuses on preventing functional decline in older people, and improving the care of older people using acute and sub-acute services through:
Orthopaedic Waiting List (OWL) Project
$46,000, funding by DHS, 12 months
The Orthopaedic Waiting List (OWL) is a DHS funded initiative that focuses on better managing the process that surrounds the referral and review of patients accessing the Acute Outpatient Orthopaedic clinics. Through a change in processes and in the workforce, the OWL project aims to result in:
- More appropriate use of limited specialist orthopaedic services, including referral of patients not requiring surgical procedures to more appropriate conservative management of their care
- Significantly reduce waiting times for initial consultation, resulting in more timely referral to an orthopaedic surgeon, or conservative management, as appropriate
- Active management of the elective waiting list, including prioritisation to match need
- Improved patient satisfaction
The OWL project resulted from recognition that the unmet demand was greater in orthopaedics than in any other area of surgery, and consequently waiting lists were growing, and people’s treatments were delayed while waiting to be reviewed in Outpatients.
The success of OWL has been evident following trials in several other large public health settings, and Bendigo Health is basing their activities on these achievements. The project commenced on April 2008 and is due for completion in June 2009.
23 Hour Extended Day Surgery Project
$41,667, funded by DHS, 12 months
The aim of this project is to develop a 23 hour model of care for extended day surgery. The objectives include the establishment of protocols and processes for 23hour extended day surgery, the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of clinical pathways for procedures within the ‘short-stay surgery basket’ and to change the traditional management of the targeted surgical cases to enable their discharge within 23 hours. It is hoped to reduce the length of stay for patients and to have a positive effect on the elective surgery waitlist.
A four bed ward area was identified within the surgical ward for the 23 hour unit patients. This area was opened on May 5, 2008. The first month of opening saw 92.7% of the patients discharged within 23 hours from their time of entry into Recovery room (the DHS definition of 23 hours). During the first month of operation of the unit there has also been an overall drop in length of stay for patients in the Surgical Unit
The Victorian and Tasmanian Dementia Training Study Centre for Health Professionals known as TIME for Dementia
$44,000 per year, funded by the Commonwealth Government, 3 years
The Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care at La Trobe University, Bundoora, is the lead agency for TIME for Dementia and BH is one of the partner agencies alongside Alzheimer’s Australia Tas, Alzheimer’s Australia Vic, Bayside Health, Bundoora Extended Care Centre, Monash University, NARI, St Vincent’s Health and the University of Tasmania. TIME for Dementia provides an exciting opportunity for BH to collaborate with key dementia agencies and further our established track record in dementia research, education and management.
TIME for Dementia has developed a core education module which contains best practice information that is essential for all disciplines of health professionals in providing care for people with dementia. The core module contains comprehensive information around epidemiology, risk reduction, assessment and diagnosis, sub-groups, and best practice care and management of people with dementia. The core education package is available on line at www.timefordementia.org.au, and discipline specific case studies are being developed to enhance the generic core module information.
The web-based learning modules are supported by a mentor program whereby health professionals undertaking the on-line learning can access expert support through professional mentoring. Mentors come from a variety of multi-disciplinary backgrounds and a range of geographic locations throughout Victoria and Tasmania. CHERC coordinates regular meetings for those mentors based in regional Victoria.
Workshops across regional and metropolitan Victoria and Tasmania are also being planned to enable health professionals’ access to a range of experts in the field of dementia. Bendigo has been selected as the first workshop location, and CHERC is responsible for local coordination of the workshop, which is to be held in October 2008.
Four dementia-specific scholarships have also been awarded through TIME for Dementia. These scholarships provide the opportunity for health professionals to undertake their PhD study in a dementia specific area relevant to the focus of their practice and consistent with the philosophies of TIME for Dementia.
TIME for Dementia promotes dementia specific research through both its scholarship program and through its own research agenda. TIME for Dementia is currently supporting members of the management team and a scholarship holder, Angela Crombie from BH’s CHERC, in a collaborative research project examining the detection and management of dementia by general practitioners. This tri-state study demonstrates the collaborative approach to dementia education and research taken by TIME for Dementia.
Colonoscopy Service Redesign Project
$25,000, funded by DHS, 4 months
The aim of this project is to assess the impact of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP), and to assist public health services to improve their colonoscopy throughput.
The final report for the project is due to be submitted in August. The working party established at BH has developed a plan from the ideas generated in a workshop with a DHS consultant, and has commenced working through these improvement ideas. It is too early, at this stage, to identify if any of these changes has impacted on colonoscopy throughput.