The Bays hospital leads way in delivering safer health outcomes

Local hospital, The Bays, in Mornington has been applauded today for its developments in improving quality, safety and clinical outcomes for patients.

The hospital has received a $15,000 grant from the Medibank Private Safety and Clinical Improvement Incentive Pool. The grant was officially received at an event held this morning at the hospital attended by senior hospital and Medibank Private staff.

The Incentive Pool - totalling more than $900,000 distributed across Australia - was established by Medibank Private to support initiatives aimed at improving quality and safety in private hospitals. It allows the health fund to work with private hospitals, like The Bays, to reduce the risk of adverse events and encourage innovation and best practice in clinical care in Australian private hospitals.

The Bays Hospital received the grant from Medibank Private to support their newly introduced 'Incident and Non Conformance Management Report' that is part of an expanded quality and risk reporting framework.

The hospital has worked closely with an external Epidemiologist to implement the new reporting framework.

"The new system is very user-friendly. All incidents are placed into five categories and a follow-up process is clearly defined," said Peter Wilkinson, The Bays Hospital Chief Executive Officer.

Mr Wilkinson also commented that the new Incident Reporting framework helped the Hospital Board to meet its governance responsibilities.

"Medibank's Incentive Pool allows us to work with hospitals to improve clinical outcomes. We want better health outcomes for our members and the Incentive Pool forces us to do more than just talk about improving quality and safety," said Medibank Private's National Hospital Manager, Russell Bateman.

"We are assisting hospitals to be more innovative, to lift the bar on current standards.

"It's simple really - we want the best health outcomes for our members, we asked hospitals how they could do this, they told us and we are helping them make it a reality," he said.

FACTS ABOUT THE MEDIBANK PRIVATE INCENTIVE POOL:

� Originally $500,000 was made available in 2006, but due to the quality of applications this increased to over $900,000.
� 34 hospitals across Australia were successful in their application
� Total value of approved proposals is $907,488
� Major areas of innovation of applications included:
 Falls prevention and management
 Improving management of medication
 Discharge and re-admission planning
 Pressure ulcer management
 Improving patient communication and education
� A pool of $1 million will be available for distribution in 2007.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Libby Woolnough - Medibank Private
T. (03) 8622 5181 or 0411 659 060
E: libby_Woolnough@medibank.com.au