Data is improving how we deliver care and provide a safe and positive experience for our patients

The Department of Health Informatics, led by Dr David Rankin, is working on several projects with Monash University medical students who are involved in research placements.

The students, supported by competitive Senior Medical Staff Association research scholarships, are investigating key healthcare service questions that can lead to practical changes to how we deliver care. The projects will impact many areas of our service including how we improve services for patients through their experience, increase patient safety through reporting and ensure our patients have support on discharge.

Falls – improving reporting to change practices and decrease incidences

Patient falls are the most frequently reported safety incident in hospitals. Accurate reporting of patient falls is critical for informing prevention practices and policies, with the goal of reducing the incidence of falls and improving patient safety.

Savannah Vote has been reviewing the completion rates of falls risk tools and the barriers nurses face in completing the tools. Her research has identified significant variance in the percentage of patients who have a documented risk assessment and the way the forms are completed. She is now working with nurses to identify barriers to completing the form and ways the process could be improved.

Understanding complaints in order to improve our delivery of care

Positive patient experience is a key part of high quality healthcare. By identifying the characteristics of patient complaints, Cabrini can determine if there are certain aspects of care that generate more complaints and if we are meeting the needs of various patient groups. Understanding patients who lodge complaints will inform evidence-based recommendations to ensure all patients are receiving highquality, personalised care.

Nada Hasan is reviewing the profiles of patients who raise complaints either directly or through the patient experience survey. She has linked the likelihood of a patient making a complaint with several characteristics including being female, aged 80 – 90, having a medical diagnosis, staying 6 – 10 days, being in a shared room and being of certain religious and ethnic backgrounds.

The findings will be useful in changing hospital policies and systems and in ensuring we better meet the needs of various patient groups, by facilitating better treatment, care and patient satisfaction.

Accuracy of medication discharge summaries

An important part of excellent healthcare delivery is ensuring patients are well supported on discharge from hospital. Effective and accurate communication with their community healthcare provider is a key aspect of patient support.

Denise Tiong is looking at the accuracy of the medication discharge summary that is sent to a patient’s GP. Her work has reassuringly found that the discharge medication summary is a true and accurate reflection of the medication the patient was on at the time of discharge. Denise is also examining the records of patients who were discharged on multiple opioid medications.