There is good news for local residents with Geelong Private Hospital being recognised nationally for its innovation and commitment to clinical quality and patient safety.
Geelong Private Hospital has received a $30,000 grant from the Medibank Private Safety and Clinical Improvement Incentive Pool to fund a project to develop and implement best practice guidelines to reduce the risk of patient falls in the transition from hospital to home.
At a presentation ceremony held at the hospital today, Geelong Private Hospital Chief Executive Officer Greg Allen spoke about the hospital's commitment to lifting the standards of patient safety and clinical quality.
"Geelong Private Hospital is delighted to receive the support of Medibank Private for our Falls Reduction Project. Preliminary research by the project team identified that some of our patients not only have an increased risk of falls while staying in hospital, but remain at higher risk of falling and requiring readmission to hospital once they return to their home," he said.
"This project aims to decrease the number of accidental falls by our patients while staying in the hospital, and also in their own home in the weeks and months following discharge. This will be achieved by targeted identification of the patients at risk of falling, improving the skills of all hospital staff in managing the risk of falls, and educating the patient and their family or carer about how to minimise the risk of them falling, including visiting the patient in their home following discharge.
"The project is a good example of how Geelong Private Hospital is using evidence based practice to improve the care and safety of patients choosing to stay at the hospital," Mr Allen said.
More than one million dollars has been granted by Medibank Private to hospitals around Australia this year, with Victorian hospitals receiving a total of almost $322,000 to fund quality and safety projects, almost a third of the total funding made available in the current program.
Medibank Private's Hospital Contract Manager Jeremy Hose praised the local projects as being of a particularly high standard.
"Quality and safety is emerging as the number one issue in Australian health care, so it is inspiring that local private hospitals are now being recognised for their effort and innovation.
"Australia has some of the best quality hospital care in the world, but there is always room for improvement, and improvement and innovation should be supported. Medibank Private is proud to be working with hospitals to improve health outcomes, not just for our members, but for everyone.
"And it's great to see some real innovation coming not just from the big, metropolitan hospitals, but also from regional facilities such as Geelong Private. It is this sort of commitment that is keeping Victorian private hospitals at the forefront of innovation and safety," Mr Hose said.
The lessons learned from the various quality and safety projects funded over the last two years will be shared throughout the health sector, extending the value of individual projects far beyond the hospitals in which they are run.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
James Connors
Tel: 03 8622 5163 | Mob: 0433 992 677 | email: james_connors@medibank.com.au