This project delivered education focused on two major risk factors for stillbirth: fetal growth restriction and decreased fetal movements.
In partnership with the Stillbirth Centre for Research Excellence (CRE), we implemented:
We continued to expand our Maternity and Neonatal ehandbooks, which give clinicians providing maternity care 24-hour access to pathways of care regardless of service location, capability or skill of workforce.
In 2018-19 we added a further 13 topics for our online maternity ehandbook, including antepartum haemorrhage, birth after caesarean, breech presentation, gestational diabetes and more.
Victorian maternity and newborn services have a unique role and requirements in providing safe, high-quality healthcare.
So we developed a clinical governance guide to provide maternity services with service-specific tools and resources to meet the requirements set out in the Victorian Clinical Governance Framework.
Gastro-oesophageal reflux is common in infants but is often misdiagnosed and treated unnecessarily with acid suppression therapy (AST) which can cause harm.
Prior to the pilot project commencing, we found that:
Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospital patients worldwide. It is a time-critical illness requiring early identification and prompt intervention to improve patient mortality outcomes.
We introduced a statewide approach to sepsis assessment and management, and helped emergency departments and urgent care centres recognise and initially manage patients experiencing sepsis.
Paediatric tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy are the most common surgical procedures in childhood, usually for obstructed sleep apnoea or frequent tonsillitis. However, rates of tonsillectomy vary greatly depending on location.
Around 70 hospitals in Victoria perform tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies. Our data shows around 10% of hospitals have readmission rates higher than expected for these surgeries.
In Victoria a rapid response call occurs every 15.9 minutes.
Increasing demand on rapid response services results in stretched resources and inconsistent system responsiveness.
We will reduce repeat rapid response calls and associated impact on rapid response team resources, by producing a resource package to help services:
Victorian Healthcare Experience Survey data shows renal patients generally feel less involved in decisions about their care.
To improve this, we have developed statewide minimum criteria for informed consent.
These documents aim to improve patient involvement in decisions about their care and reduce variation in the information they receive when consenting to treatment for end stage kidney disease.
Victorian Healthcare Experience Survey data shows consumers are not adequately engaged in their care, decision making and activities to maintain function during their hospital stay. This places older patients at risk of functional decline, increased length of stay and poor health outcomes.
National data shows an unwarranted variation in how people presenting to hospital with a suspected hip fracture are screened, assessed and managed. This places the patient at higher risk of poorer outcomes and readmission.
We partnered with five hospitals to develop and test a best practice pathway outlining time critical actions to promote high-quality patient care and support timely surgery.