The High Reliability Organisation (HRO) and Project Management team have been working on a number of initiatives, both in the quality and safety space, and in finding new ways and initiatives for the organisation to adapt to the new normal.

Quantum is one of those projects that the team has been working on, with Brooke Williams leading the way in its development.

“This is a brand new Northern Health project management tool and the HRO team is excited in its staged roll out across the organisation in the coming period. The software is designed to manage projects, accreditation and committee file management on a SharePoint platform. Quantum will provide a central repository to record project activity across the organisation, demonstrating how the project aligns with strategic values, objectives and accreditation standards,” Brooke explained.

“In the beginning, we plan to use the software for our HRO projects as well as sustainability projects. Over time, the software will used in various areas across the organisation – watch this space,” added Ariana Carrodus, Project Manager.

“The software was always something that we knew we needed to do, we just needed to make sure we did it right,” explained Sophie Argiriou, Director HRO and Project Management Office.

“This new software will be hugely important for the organisation. Our HRO transformation has been a catalyst in ensuring we have visibility for both HRO activities as well as other process improvement and project work across Northern Health,” explained Sophie.

Northern Health’s HRO transformation has been fully active for two full years now and is entering the third year, called “Horizon 3”. In Horizon 2, we have seen numerous initiatives and projects implemented throughout the health service, such as the increasing roll out of Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Programs (CUSPs), with nine active CUSPs across Epping and Broadmeadows sites.

Another successful HRO initiative is the Daily Safety Brief.

“The Daily Safety Brief is a meeting that occurs every day at 9.45 am – it’s a chance for the organisation to come together and report out on any quality and safety issues. Since COVID-19, the Daily Safety Brief has transitioned to MS Teams with great success,” Ariana said.

“There are numerous projects still happening, like the Patient Experience project relating to assisted meals and packs for vulnerable patients, with a trial currently under way in Bundoora Centre. There are also projects in the maternity space which are ongoing,” Ariana added.

Every project under our HRO transformation is sponsored by a member of the Executive team.

“Whenever we consider our projects, we are looking at which project can make a real difference in various health service areas. From an Operational Efficiency perspective, we have the “Sprints” Ariana has been working on with Ed Savill, Anthony Gust and Penelope Grellet,” Sophie said.

“Sprints” started when we realised that, as an organisation, we needed to find new ways of working in the COVID and post-COVID world.

“Twelve people pitched their ideas of their models of care and from there we chose six pieces of work aimed at being completed in eight to ten weeks, with the support of our team. This is new for Northern Health, as we haven’t done short, sharp and targeted projects before,” Ariana explained.

Our staff can still get involved in our transformation work, by joining the “HRO Champions” group or sending ideas through. HRO projects can be related to quality, safety, operational efficiency and patient experience. Please email hro@nh.org.au and the HRO team is happy to answer any questions.