‘What’s the Big Idea?’ initiative, launched mid-June invites staff to submit their creative ideas that, if selected, will be turned into successful projects in just 90 days.

It has been a busy two weeks on IdeaScale, Northern Health’s portal for innovation and idea sharing, with 45 creative and out-of-the-box staff ideas submitted so far.

“We have quite a range of clinical and non-clinical ideas, a lot of tech ideas like apps and process redesign, ideas on utilising our volunteer service, garden and staff spaces, COVID-19 vaccination, linking with our community, refugee health and research,” said Cassie Bramston, Project Officer.

“If you want to get your idea in, please submit it now. Even if you don’t have the idea, get on IdeaScale and have a look at the current ideas – you can vote for the ones you like, ask questions and express interest to join the team and make the idea happen,” added Ariana Carrodus, Project Manager.

Once the idea submission stage is finalised, the ideas will go through the review process by the Innovation Assembly, who will choose the top 15 and then the team will go back and ask the staff member who submitted the idea for more information.

“We are asking for things like data on the size of the problem, cost associated with implementing their idea, how many people will it impact and similar. If the person who submitted the idea has a support team, that is great, if not – it is fine too, as it’s our job to help staff work out who needs to be in the room to bring the project to life,” Ariana explained.

“It will be Northern Health staff running the projects and implementing the ideas. If you put the idea in, you will be the one leading the project, with support from Project Management Office and access to experts, like Executive Coach, Business Manager and similar,” she added.

Both Ariana and Cassie agree a variety of factors will decide on the winning ideas.

“It’s not a popularity contest, as the Executive have a certain criteria against which all ideas will be measured against. While the staff voting will play a part, it won’t be the only deciding factor. We are looking at how many campuses the idea involves, what is the scale of the project, how many staff will it impact and how will it impact patient care,” Ariana explained.

Anthony Gust, Director Staying Well, and a member of the Innovation Assembly for the second year in a row, says there is no bad idea and encourages staff to send any idea they might have.

“We want everything! Last year, we were facing COVID-19, and there was lot of good ideas and innovation energy, that brought the Virtual ED triage, muscular-skeletal project and the EVE app. COVID-19 was forcing us to go digital and thinking about how we interact with our community not going face to face. People were really engaged in change and we are hoping the energy has rolled across to this year as well,” he said.

Is your idea Human@centre, and has technology@speed and innovation@scale? Submit your big idea on IdeaScale by Wednesday, 7 July at 11.59 pm and good luck!

The timelines are below: