ASS
Rural Health Network
Share these great innovations #RICH2014
EVALUATION REPORT Prepared by Jenny Preece ACI Rural Health Manager Michaela Cashman ACHSM Management Trainee ACI April 2014
Rural Innovations Changing Healthcare (RICH) Forum
14th
March 2014
Executive Summary
For the first time in NSW, healthcare professionals and consumers connected in a ‘virtual’ forum hosted by the ACI Rural Health Network. The Rural Innovations Changing Healthcare (RICH) 2014 forum, held on Friday, 14th March 2014, showcased a wide range of innovations making a difference to improved patient care and workforce recruitment and retention across rural and regional NSW.
Using a combination of face to face, videoconference and social media, the one day forum linked 17 satellite hubs across rural NSW bringing together a mix of cross sector disciplines at each site for a day of interdisciplinary networking between Local Health Districts (LHDs), NSW Ambulance, Residential Aged Care Facilities, Medicare Locals, General Practice and Consumers.
There were 200 registered participants to attend across the 17 sites including: Balranald, Bega, Broken Hill, Chatswood, Coffs Harbour, Cooma, Dubbo, Griffith, Inverell, Lismore, Macksville, Orange, Port Macquarie, Queanbeyan, Tamworth, Tweed Heads and Wagga Wagga. Hunter New England LHD also offered the forum via live webstream to desktops across the district.
Site Co-ordinators were identified at each site to drive local engagement and test runs were scheduled to provide training in using the technology. An information kit was distributed to sites containing attendance sheets, help desk numbers, contact details for all sites, consent forms to share presentations, and an evaluation form.
A teleconference line was made available and all presentations were distributed to sites as a back-up (Plan B), in case of audio visual connectivity issues on the day, which fortunately was not required.
There were 11 presentations including Sue Kurrle, Senior Staff Specialist Geriatrician Hornsby and Batemans Bay as keynote speaker; Necessity is the Mother of Invention: how need drove the development of two rural memory assessment services.
All ten presentations selected for inclusion on the program were presented from the nearest participating site and demonstrated:
An innovative approach to an existing local issue
That change had been embedded and was sustainable
The ability to be taken up by other health sectors.
The RICH Forum was a ‘virtual’ forum with all attendees able to interact regularly and treated to a trip around NSW without the need for travel and accommodation. See Program Appendix 1. All presentations can be viewed at http://www.aci.health.nsw.gov.au/networks/rural-health/rich
Although there were 200 registered to attend, approximately 100 attended. This may have been due to the fact that there was no registration fee and competing priorities may have impacted on the day. Some respondents commented that they only heard of the Forum in days leading up to the event – which was a local communication issue. Marketing and promotion will be targeted in future events.
The Forum ran well, with the only cost being for catering for sites involved, and for additional Technology support – total $2,400. Certificates of attendance for Clinical Professional Development were issued on request to 80 participants.
Offering the Forum locally at 17 sites across NSW afforded clinicians the opportunity to ‘drop in’ and attend for selective sessions of relevance without the need to be absent from work for the whole day, as is the case with conventional Forums.
91 evaluations were received, with 100% requesting the RICH Forum be conducted annually. As one participant commented: “I was impressed with the RICH Forum – it was very well organised and the quality of presentations was very high! Overall it was an extremely professional, inspiring, informative and enjoyable day.” See Program Appendix 1 and full Evaluation comments Appendix 2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Nu
mb
er
of
par
icip
ants
Session Attended for the RICH forum
Yes
No
n/a (did notnote)
Themes emerging from the presentations?
Workforce models: Public Private Partnerships / Recruitment and retention strategies for rural areas.
Reducing the silos: co-ordination and integration across diverse clinical settings
Patient Care: Hospital Avoidance / Demand Strategies
Participants at the RICH Forum. Photo: A. Langton.
What barriers were overcome?
All sites were linked through the NSW Health Bridge using multipoint linkage via videoconference, requiring training training with all site coordinators, and presenters was carried out to ensure that audio-visual connectivity was sound, and that staff were familiar with the technology (particularly moving the camera and keeping the handset on mute)
Presentations needed to be adapted to ensure videoconference compatibility (no animations or embedded videos) and to ensure adequate font size and colour sequencing for transmission.
A communication strategy had to be developed to ensure contact was maintained with the NSW Health Bridge at all times to facilitate changing the screen layout from full screen for the presentations, to multiple sites “Brady Bunch” screen for Question and Answer, so that all sites could see who was asking the question. This was required every 15 minutes.
What worked well?
A small statewide working party was formed within the Rural Health Network to plan, facilitate implementation and evaluate the first RICH Forum. This included identifying venues and site co-ordinators, promotion and marketing, establishing criteria and calling for abstracts, program development and evaluation strategies.
All site co-ordinators were well prepared and familiar with the expectations of the day
Generally the smaller the site the higher the attendance (Broken Hill, Bega, Inverell) possibly indicating the need these small rural settings have for improved interaction with other sites, and the value they placed on the forum to access the opportunity to share ideas
Videoconference units within hospital settings attracted a higher participation than units in Community Health or Rural Clinical Schools
The day ran strictly to time as per the program and clinicians valued the opportunity to ‘drop in’ for selective sessions – no commitment to be absent from the workplace for the whole day
Technical support maintained good communication between the onsite and health bridge to ensure that any connectivity issues were resolved instantly
The virtual forum heard presentations from Bega, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Dubbo, Port Macquarie and Chatswood without the need for travel
Presenters were visible on full screen from anywhere in NSW, with the screen view switching to all sites for Q&A so everyone could see who was asking the question
Facilitation enabled each site the opportunity to ask questions in a supported manner optimising interaction across NSW.
Question and Answer time at Broken Hill: Photo J Preece
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Relativerural
innovation
Topicspitched atright level
Session wellpresented
Paricipation& questions
Interagency Visual aidstransmitted
clearly
Sound wassatifactory
Nu
mb
er
of
Par
tici
pan
ts
Impressions of the RICH forum
SA
A
N
D
SD
N/A
Lessons Learned?
Creating the opportunity for sites to test their link with the NSW Health Bridge numerous times prior to the event enabled many problems to be resolved prior to the day eg ensuring the videoconference dial up number was correct for the videoconference unit booked, that handset batteries were not flat, that all cables required were present?
It is crucial to conduct test runs with sites and presenters, to have IT support and excellent communication on the day
Good facilitation ensures that the day runs smoothly with all sites being called in one by one after each presentation for the opportunity to ask questions and maximise opportunity for interaction
Participants valued to diversity of presentations on the program – from across numerous health sectors (Medicare Local, LHD, General Practice, NSW Ambulance, LHD)
It is important to keep to time as advised in the program to accommodate clinicians ‘dropping in’ for selective sessions of relevance
It is a forum without travel – which make it cost effective
It is important to load the presentations on the website as soon as possible after the Forum to encourage broader sharing of projects whilst the messages are fresh
The value of social media in promoting the event, and sharing lessons learned in real time during the event was maximised with 150,000 impressions captured by Twitter during the event. This has since increased to more than 185,000 impressions by the end of March.
Audiovisual connectivity was much better across NSW Health VC units, than with external units located in Rural Clinical Schools. NSW Health bridge can guarantee speed and quality using internal links, but has no control over speed and quality with external links.
Participants at the RICH Forum. Photo: A. Langton.
Social Media @ RICH2014 Forum
One of the key premises of the RICH Forum was accessibility and inclusion. The use of social media
is increasingly becoming part of the health landscape through movements such as #FOAMed (Free
Open Access Medical education). The RICH Committee was keen to maximise the impact of the
conference to allow the largest possible audience to benefit from the ideas being presented. Social
media was a perfect fit for this role.
Social media played a wide range of roles in supporting RICH. Facebook and Twitter were used to
promote the event and provide information to participants before the event.
During the forum, a small, dedicated team of social media users followed the event and tweeted
content in real time. This allowed those not able to get to venues to follow key concepts being
presented and created opportunity for discussion. During the forum nearly 300 tweets were generated
from 22 participants in the Twitter discussion. This is significant as social media has not previously
been effectively harnessed as a tool in rural health conferences. Not only was content replicated via
twitter for dissemination to people following the forum but opportunities for commentary and
discussion were created.
Buck Reed
Twitter and Facebook provided an excellent ongoing opportunity to continue discussions and make
presenters with a social media presence accessible to those interested in their work.
Thanks to some of our excellent contributors who included @raj_aci (Raj Verma), @Catherineturn27
(Catherine Turner), @Buck_Reed (Buck Reed - pictured), @anna_aci (Anna Nicholes),
@ClaireWarren0 (Claire Warren – from Tasmanian DHHS who found out about RICH from Twitter),
@NSWACI_kate (Kate Lloyd) and, of course, @NSWACI.
Sample tweets from the RICH Forum
RICH Forum Twitter statistics
Rural Innovations Changing Healthcare RICH Forum welcome. Photo: A Nichols
7% 1% 1% 1% 1%
16%
11%
2%
13%
1% 2% 2% 1% 1%
18%
1% 19% 1%
LHD/Organisation
ACI Advocacy
Consumer Dept Health and Human Services - TAS
FWLHD HNELHD
Mclean Care Ltd MLHD
MoH n/a
NNSWLHD Ochre
Royal Far West SNSWLHD
Evaluation
91 evaluations were returned. Common themes and recommendations are as follows:
Representation by discipline – the majority of participants were nursing, allied health or management
Participation was higher in the western, far west and southern areas of NSW.
2%
46%
27%
2%
18%
3% 1%
1%
Discipline
Aboriginal Health
Nursing
Allied Health
Medical
Management / Administration
n/a
Consumer
Ambulance
61%
36%
3%
First experience of a multi session videoconference
event
Yes
No
n/a
15%
79%
6%
Attended the event if only offered face to face in Sydney
Yes
No
n/a
49%
42%
2% 7%
Overall Opinion of the RICH Forum
Excellent
Very Good
Average
n/a
61% had never participated in a multipoint videoconference event.
Almost 80% respondents would not have attended the event if was held in Sydney
91% rated the RICH Forum as Very Good to Excellent
90%
10%
How often would you like a RICH Forum
Annually
6 monthly
Evaluation Comments
It was well chaired, ran to time, very well organised with good IT support and prior preparation to achieve the interest and attendance
Great to be able to choose the topics I wanted to attend – not be away from work for the whole day. Thanks for this initiative.
Well done to the tech team and their rapid response to challenges
Very varied program - Good diversity and selection of cross sector topics. Excellent multidisciplinary approach
A little shorter – 9am – 3pm; no am or pm tea
Hold RICH mid week – Friday is a tough day to get staff to attend
Most topics were hospital based – not so suitable for NGOs
Murrumbidgee LHD had difficulty sending program electronically due to bandwidth, could only send the link
100% respondents would like RICH Forums offered annually. 10% of those would like RICH Forums more frequently. Recommendations for future RICH Forums:
Conduct RICH Forum annually in March to inspire clinicians leading into the LHD Awards
Have more lead in time – establish Working Party June/ July; Call for Abstracts Sep, Program available Nov / Dec
Preferably only use NSW Health VC’s (quality control) and in a location close to clinical areas
Shorten the day; either 9am till 3pm, or even 4 hours 9am – 1pm and hold it mid-week
Themed on specific topics – eg Health Promotion, Preventative Health, Paediatric emergencies, Trauma and emergency topics, Whole of Hospital, Aboriginal Chronic Care, Telehealth, Hospital Avoidance / Hospital demand strategies
Group similar topics together eg Aged Care, Palliative Care, Rehabilitation eg Paediatrics / Emergency / trauma eg Workforce / Recruitment / Retention
Align the topics eg adults or kids or allied health or acute care to be presented consecutively
Have Discipline specific days eg Allied Health (Physio, social work, dietetics, podiatry, occupational therapy)
If you would like to get involved in the conversation, Follow @NSWACI and #RICH2014 on Twitter and the RICH2014 page on Facebook.
For more information, contact the Network Manager. Jenny Preece Ph 02 66927716 E [email protected]
APPENDIX 1 RICH Program
RICH
Forum Rural Innovations
Changing
Healthcare
A one day ‘virtual’ forum
linking 16 satellite hubs across
rural NSW
Friday 14 March
2014
8.30am – 4.30pm
Aim To showcase and share rural models of care which:
show a resourceful and innovative approach to an existing issue
have potential to be taken up by other rural health settings
demonstrate sustainability in embedding the change
Audience The forum is aimed at the rural multidisciplinary workforce including those who work in non government organisations (Local Health Districts, Aboriginal Medical Services, Medicare Locals, Residential Aged Care Providers, NSW Ambulance, Royal Flying Doctor, University Departments of Rural Health and Royal Far West Kids)
Cost The forum is free – but please advise if you register and are then unable to attend. Registrations are invited on-line by Monday 10
th March 2014 at www.aci.health.nsw.gov.au/networks/rural-health-network/rural-
innovations-changing-healthcare-forum
Satellite Hubs LHD Site Venue Local Contact HNE Tamworth HACC and Disabilities, 1
st Floor Meeting
Room [email protected]
Inverell North Wing Meeting Room [email protected]
Webstream http://hnestream.hnehealth.nsw.gov.au [email protected]
NNSW Tweed Mental Health VC Room [email protected]
Lismore Crawford House Ground Floor Meeting Room
MNC Coffs Harbour
CHHC, Education Room 25 [email protected] [email protected]
Port Macquarie
Community Health, Morton St [email protected] [email protected]
Macksville Kath Bowman’s Executive Office [email protected]
WNSW Orange VC Lecture Theatre [email protected]
Dubbo Hawthorn St, Large Conference Room [email protected]
Murrumbidgee Wagga Wagga
Rural Clinical School Main Lecture Theatre
Griffith Nurses Training School [email protected]
SNSW Queanbeyan Peppertree Lodge, Snow Drop Room [email protected]
Bega The Blue Meeting Room [email protected] [email protected]
Cooma Room 10, Community Health Centre [email protected]
FW Broken Hill Kincumber Board Room [email protected]
Balranald Meeting Room 3 [email protected]
ACI Chatswood Yandhai Room, Level 7 [email protected]
About the ACI The Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) is the lead Agency in NSW for promoting innovation, engaging clinicians and designing and implementing models of care. Our clinical networks, Taskforces and Institutes provide a forum for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, managers and consumers to collaborate across the NSW health system. The NSW ACI Rural Health Network works collaboratively with rural Local Health Districts, health service providers and consumers to identify and showcase innovative models of care and to provide critique for models of care being developed to ensure compatibility for implementation in rural communities. To join an ACI Clinical Network, go to www.aci.health.nsw.gov.au/join-a-network
Further Information Contact Jenny Preece, ACI Rural Health Manager, Dorrigo MPS Ph 02 66927716, Mob 0427568249, Email [email protected]
RICH Program Friday 14 March 2014
8.30am Arrival / Registration Site
9.00am Introduction, Acknowledgement to Country and Housekeeping – Jenny Preece, ACI Rural Health Manager
ACI
9.15am Official Opening – Dr Nigel Lyons Chief Executive, ACI ACI
9.20am Necessity is the mother of invention: how need drove the development of two rural memory assessment services. Keynote Speaker: Prof. Sue Kurrle, Geriatrician Hornsby and Batemans Bay hospitals
ACI
10.00am Three way collaboration for dental treatment for children 0 – 18yrs; Jenny Conquest SNSW LHD
Wagga Wagga
10.30am 10 Minute Trauma Topics – Structured Trauma Education in the Emergency Department; Vicki Conyers WNSW LHD
Orange
11.00am Morning Tea
11.15am Co-ordinated discharge package to reduce re-admissions in the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU); Dr Keegan Lee MNC LHD
ACI
11.45am Speech Pathology Teletherapy: Working with schools and preschools to create health solutions for rural children; Dr Robyn Ramsden, Donna Parkes; Royal Far West
ACI
12.15pm Lunch
1.00pm Crossing Over: Seconding Nurses from the hospital to private General Practice – a partnership for nurse retention; Dr Hamish Meldrum, Ochre Health; Judy Caswell, WNSWLHD
Dubbo
1.30pm Nurse-led Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) Service in a rural hospital setting; Andrew Patterson WNSW LHD
Dubbo
2.00pm ACE Program – Co-operation can keep Aged Care residents well and out of hospital; Catherine Turner, Hunter Medicare Local
Port Macquarie
2.30pm Afternoon tea
2.45pm A rural Public / Private partnership for New Graduate Physiotherapists Recruitment and Education; David Schmidt, Chris Cheung; SNSW LHD, Naomi White; Sapphire Coast Physiotherapy
Bega
3.15pm Frequent User Management; Kevin McLaughlin, NSW Ambulance ACI
3.45pm What a difference a little lytics makes- Paramedic initiated thrombolysis in rural NSW; Dean Pennell, NSW Ambulance
ACI
4.15pm Evaluations and Close ACI
Professor Susan Kurrle is a geriatrician at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital in northern Sydney and Batemans Bay Hospital in Southern NSW, and she holds the Curran Chair in Health Care of Older People in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. She has had a long interest and involvement in practice and research in dementia, and she runs memory clinics in Sydney, Batemans Bay and Armidale. She is also involved in clinical drug trials for dementia. In 2012 she was appointed to lead the new NHMRC National Partnership Centre on Dealing with Cognitive Decline.
Rural and regional areas are very poor in the supply of geriatricians, in contrast with the rich supply of geriatricians in urban areas. Eurobodalla is a popular retirement region in coastal southern NSW with a very high proportion of older people. Armidale is a university town and rural service centre also with a high proportion of older people. Neither have access to regular geriatrician services. This presentation looks at how this problem was addressed in two different ways, and how the services have improved access to specialist input, particularly for people with dementia.
Presentations Local Solutions Category Nurse Led Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) Service in a rural hospital setting Andrew Patterson, Leigh Hobden, Geoff Hardacre, WNSW LHD Historically patients requiring PICC were placed on the ‘Emergency’ waiting list having the PICC inserted in the Operating Theatre with significant delays and complications. The PICC Service team consist of 2 credentialed RNs and one medical officer, with the nurses inserting the majority of PICC lines by the next business day after referral; saving $2,900 each PICC insertion based on Operating Theatre times, wages and bed days saved. 10 minute Trauma Topics – Structured Trauma Education in the Emergency Department Vicki Conyers, WNSW LHD Emergency Departments are unpredictable environments and dedicated professional development time is challenging. The structured trauma education program has seen 83, 10 minute topics presented over 12 months across the multidisciplinary team – Nursing, Medical, Allied Health, Ambulance; average attendance 14 at each session. Co-Ordinated Discharge Package to reduce readmissions in the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) Dr Keegan Lee, MNC LHD Key performance indicators were being breached for re-admission rates, so the MAU team developed a co-ordinated discharge package (CPD) where the JMO has routinely implemented a discharge consultation followed by a 48 hour call back. CPD has seen a reduction in re-admissions of almost 50% since March 2013 and has become permanent methodology at Coffs Harbour MAU. Building Partnerships Category ACE Program – Co-operation can keep Aged Care residents well and out of hospital Catherine Turner, Hunter Medicare Local HNE LHD and Hunter Medicare Local are co-operating on broader implementation of the ACE program (Aged Care Emergency) utilising online clinical guidelines, and a Clinical Nurse Consultant and two Clinical Nurse Specialists funded by the Medicare Local to embed practices in RACF’s and with NSW Ambulance. Early results demonstrate significant reduction in admission rates of RACF residents. Three way collaboration for dental treatment for children 0 – 18 years Jenny Conquest, SNSW LHD This partnership is collaboration between MLHD, CSU and the Centre for Oral Health Strategy NSW. In 2011, there were 349 children on waiting list at Wagga Wagga. Payment for a set of prescribed services has enabled students to provide treatments for 1,357 children since 2011. The program was extended to WNSW LHD in 2013. Speech Pathology Teletherapy: Working with schools and preschools to create health solutions for rural children Dr Robyn Ramsden, Donna Parkes, Royal Far West Kids Royal Far West has developed a speech and communication therapy program; Come N’ See which was delivered to 152 children across 23 rural and remote preschools and primary schools in 2013. Six fortnightly therapy sessions are delivered via technology. Families, school principals, teachers and local agencies have become critical partners in delivering speech therapy services to schools. A Rural Public / Private Partnership for New Graduate Physiotherapists Recruitment and Education David Schmidt, Adam Woolacott, Naomi White, Megan Kurtz, Chris Cheung, Duane Kelly, Jeremy Fernanda, Neil Dmytryk A public / private partnership between SNSW LHD and Sapphire Coast Physiotherapy was formed to attract new graduate physiotherapists to Bega to work part time in both sectors. Education, management and support are shared between both sectors; offering a range of clinical experiences, a large pool of mentors and creating a certainty around staffing. The strategy plans to extend to student undergraduate placements.
Crossing Over: seconding nurses from the hospital to general private practice. A partnership for nurse retention and better health outcomes Dr Hamish Meldrum, Heather Finlayson, Michelle McMullen, Ochre Health / WNSW LHD Brewarrina Health Service and Ochre Health have collaborated to create a Full Time Equivalent (FTE) position in which the FTE spends 24 hours per week in private practice to deliver Chronic Disease Management services and the balance in the LHD. The Nurse’s salary is fully recovered from Medicare item numbers, is additional to the LHD budget and sustainable with governance provided by WNSW LHD. Patients as Partners Category Frequent User Management Kevin McLaughlin, NSW Ambulance As a demand management strategy, data was extracted to identify most frequent callers to 000. Interagency planning meetings with the patient have established and implemented care plans which have seen a significant decrease in the number of calls to 000 and transport to EDs, with associated cost savings to Ambulance and flow on savings to LHDs. Integrated Healthcare Category What a difference a little lytics makes – Paramedic initiated thrombolysis in rural NSW Mr Dean Pennell, NSW Ambulance As part of the cardiac reperfusion strategy, 2000 paramedics have been trained to provide paramedic initiated accelerated reperfusion via two pathways: Pre-hospital assessment of Primary Angioplasty (PAPA) or Pre Hospital Thrombolysis (PHT). 3,000 patients have been enrolled in the primary angioplasty pathway and 200 patients have received paramedic administered thrombolysis in rural areas since 2011.
Appendix 2 Evaluation Comments Q6. Key Take Home Messages
Partnerships are important. Explore more opportunities for collaboration eg telehealth,
public/ private. Telehealth brings services previously difficult to access to those in need.
Flexibility and thinking outside the square can lead to great partnerships with external private
organisations. Collaborative private and public health sectors to offer best opportunity to new
graduates
Topics - Increase opportunities to share. Share ideas (ED In-service, Discharge Planning,
PICC, Public / Private Workforce). Great projects. A lot of good work out there.
Implementation of ward based education, Face to face discharge education. 5P’s for Vicki
Conyers – create education opportunities “10 minute trauma topics”, teamwork, utilize IT.
Discharge planning – follow up call good concept. Education no matter how busy (trauma).
Nurses can learn specialist skills (PICC)
Technology - Innovative – we need to use VC. The benefits of using technology in health
care far outweigh the challenges. Using technology to see and hear each other in a virtual
forum can capture more participation locally. Telehealth – just do it. There are very dynamic,
clever and multidisciplinary modes of getting around the challenges of living / working and
travel.
Virtual Forum - Importance of sharing innovations highlighted by this forum. Take advantage
of this excellent opportunity to view what others are doing out there. If you want to have
numerous sites participating across the state in something it can be done. Just need ACI
sponsorship – can MoH and other Pillars pull it off this well?? It’s easy to access state run
conferences locally, and all day attendance is not required – just drop in! Great Forum –
ability to come and go is great. Great way of education for rural facilities – offers a very wide
variety of topics across disciplines. Accessing education without the travel. Use technology to
access what we need and share in days like today. Possibly link together for specific days
across the state
Simple programs can work to enhance the patient experience. Innovation is often a simple
strategy / idea and does not require significant resources always to achieve excellent
outcomes. Many innovations don’t need major investment – much is possible with passion,
thinking and patience. More of this – spreading the innovation. Be willing to think outside the
square and use technology. Look at what resources you have and think outside the box –
anything is possible. There are amazing innovations happening in rural areas – need to
promote and share them more.
Team work: Communication + collaboration + innovation + passion = results! Success
needs to be celebrated. Collaboration and communication are the key. Share and engage –
wonderful opportunity to showcase excellent innovations occurring across the state. Don’t
reinvent the well – networking is a good thing! Rural Clinicians are focussed and innovative
on problem solving
Change Management - Most change needs a dedicated driver. Persevere with concepts to
improve outcomes for our patients and communities. We can adapt city programs to small
rural sites. Rural can be innovators – clinicians can lead the way and be recognised. We
should look at innovation in every day operational systems and not wait till issues are so bad
they need addressing. Review and redesign as necessary re models of care. Valuable
education can be achieved in 10 minutes time slots. Innovation and applying research on the
ground. Ensure executive support for innovative programs
Q7. Was RICH an effective opportunity to share innovation?
Yes 90
No 0
Some presentations were not very rural and difficult to generalise to our setting
Great that sessions could be attended individually for clinicians who could not attend for
longer periods. Nil travel saves time and money!!
There did not appear to be many people on line at times (with the exception of a couple of
sites). This, I believe will improve moving forward once the ‘value-add’ reputation with
methodology and representation is known
Many of the booked VC rooms are not situated in workplaces – Difficult for clinical staff to
attend.
Excellent team work – especially IT support
There was a lot of cross fertilisation of ideas
Good cross section of presenters
Q8. What would have made the day better for you?
Stronger emphasis on showing what interventions have achieved. Some presentations simply
explained what they were doing without any evaluation
It was a bit distracting having people from your site presenting to the camera, but with their
backs to you! Orange presenting was viewed from the back.
Even though the site was local, a very early agenda of times would have been helpful so I
could plan to attend only the most useful sessions (it is very difficult to be free the whole day).
Greater lead time in advertising after the program came out to increase networking and
attendance. Time frame for being aware of the forum was short – a local issue
Make it available in Eurobodalla
9am – 3pm every 6 months would be good
I would like to have seen more people take advantage and attend (even for 1 or 2 sessions)
Hold during the week – Friday is a tough day to get staff to attend
For a first attempt, I think it worked smoothly and kept to time. Congratulations!
Knowledge that we needed to bring food and refreshments, however this is more a local site
communication issue, not ACI – not a problem really
Group similar topics together eg Aged Care. Align the topics. Grouping together related topics
eg Aged Care / Paediatrics / Trauma / Recruitment to facilitate attendance. Aligning topics (eg
for) could have been presented consecutively. More cohesive themes for sections
Questions to be sent in rather than run around the other sites – however it was good to see
the other sites
It was great – very well organised! It was good – great venue at Orange
It was a very varied program. Other programs could be more on specific topics to increase
audience numbers. As a first time it was a good day. Good selection of topics
A clearer visual picture (Wagga Wagga RCS)
Only need one introduction speech
Webcasting – open to organisations outside NSW Health
Q9. Future Health Topics of interest?
Increased emphasis on health promotion and Public Health. Health prevention initiatives.
Preventative Health projects / exercise based programs. Preventative medicine
Sharing of clinical information / records across organisations (acute, post-acute care models –
rural, mental health, public and private
Have discipline specific days eg Aboriginal chronic care - Community Health, Chronic disease
and care planning. ‘Journey’ improvement pre / acute / post hospital
Multidisciplinary teamwork approaches – team collaboration in the rural setting
More Allied Health Services – Allied Health Assistants, Physio specific topics
Partnering with universities for rural health education
Public Health / Clinical Health - cross over issues that affect rural people eg awards
Using telehealth services – encouraging use
Interagency programs
Sub-acute care goal setting – transition of patients between different hospitals. Patient inter
hospital referrals
Dementia / Delirium in acute care settings
Leadership
Wound Management
Update on snake bites and use of ant venoms
Mental Health and drug and Alcohol
Whole of hospital and innovations from hospitals in the program
Paediatric emergency presentations – are front line staff well trained? How can we improve
training?
Trauma and emergency topics
Critically ill patient transport - Transfer challenges in the bush
Interface between Hospital in the Home (HITH) and Medical Assessment Units (MAU)
Hospital avoidance
ACI Rural Health Network
Breadth of telehealth acute services – more examples of telehealth models
Palliative Care
Break down the silo style to integration at all levels
Aged care chronic illness
Matching supply and demand of medical / allied health services in rural settings and the
modes to deliver this
New graduate RN placements in remote facilities” ways to improve progress and sustain this
resource
A midwifery forum would be beneficial – or something specific to maternity
Innovations in critical care
Q10. RICH Forum annually?
Yes 100%
More often – 6 monthly 10%
A bit shorter – 9am – 3pm (don’t need am and pm tea breaks)
Q11. Comments
Be mindful of what is already provided through various rural conferences eg RUSH (HNE),
Critical Care, Aged Care, Aboriginal services
This was a very well-run forum and an incredible achievement given the number of sites
involved. I would start planning for next year. Collaboration nurtures further innovation.
Well done, wonderful to see so many rural sites linked in. Very good forum – not having to
travel hours to attend. Well organised day. Ran well to time and there seemed to be few
technical problems given the technical complexity of joining so many sites. Good time
allocation, good LHD involvement. Well run. Good variety, Good speakers.
Far West LHD needs to personally invite partners we overlooked inviting – Ambulance, Aged
Care and Medicare Local. We did have multidisciplinary teams
Some of the topics were more hospital based – not so relevant to NGOs
Excellent opportunity to provide sharing of clinical service models across numerous sites
within an affordable platform
May be worth targeting specific projects of special benefit as well as requesting abstracts
Would be helpful if promotion did not just rely on local dissemination but also came through
Ambulance, GP Alliance, Practice Nurses Assoc, etc
Needs to be pushed from the Managers so more will attend
Technology worked quite well; definitely need the logistical input of the bridge and a person at
each site to be responsible, and the information sessions for site leaders – well done for doing
all that. Thanks to IT
Excellent multidisciplinary approach. A great concept and well done
Great projects – I loved the partnership projects and NSW Ambulance initiatives
I was able to choose the topics I wanted to attend – thank you for this initiative – sharing
education and information
Very inspiring – thankyou
Fantastic innovative event – congratulations to all involved
