Critical to our ability to fully realise the potential of Great Care, Everywhere is the ongoing support of the RCH Foundation and their philanthropic partners.
The RCH Foundation has been crucial in helping us support and develop our people through funding of the RCH Compact and numerous professional development, education and research grants.
As an important partner in the Melbourne Children’s Precinct, the RCH Foundation has supported many of our world-leading education and research initiatives.
The RCH Foundation has also played a pivotal role in supporting technology and data capability across the hospital, by providing the funds to establish and expand our hospital-wide Electronic Medical Record.
Beyond this, the RCH Foundation has funded many Great Care initiatives across the hospital that have helped consolidate our reputation as a world leader in children’s health by delivering improved outcomes and experience for patients and families. Example of this include:
- the Wadja Aboriginal Family Place, a dedicated service specifically designed to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people by providing a culturally sensitive and responsive service
- the quarterly RCH National Child Health Poll which gives Australian parents a voice in the conversation around paediatric health, and
- Trans20, one of the largest longitudinal studies of transgender young people in the world.
Going forward, this support will continue to play a vital role in supporting our enablers and helping us realise the many ambitious goals we set.
Our people
Our people are the foundation for the delivery of Great Care and they are central to realising our vision. It is critical that we equip them with the skills and expertise required to allow us to support the delivery of Great Care, Everywhere.
A diverse, highly-skilled and collaborative workforce is required to deliver Great Care and we are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where every team member is valued for their unique identity and role within the hospital.
Equally as important is our commitment to supporting staff with well-being initiatives that are flexible and responsive to their individual and team requirements and address the known challenges experienced by the workforce in the health industry. Going forward we will build on our staff Mental Health plan to ensure all aspects of well-being are being addressed.
Inclusive and collaborative culture
We know that in order to care for our patients, we must first care for each other.
In 2018, we launched the RCH Compact comprising ten pledges that outline how our people will behave and work together to deliver Great Care. More than 2,500 staff members were consulted in the development of the Compact and it is now a central pillar of the RCH culture.
Clinical expertise
We are committed to supporting the personal and professional development of our people so they are equipped to meet the evolving needs of our patients and the community.
Through our campus and precinct partnerships we are able to provide leading specialist paediatric education and training. By embedding world-class education and research in our clinical practice we are able to attract and retain talent with the clinical expertise necessary to deliver Great Care now and in the future.
Developing leaders
We know that culture is created locally and effective leadership is key to enabling our staff to deliver Great Care.
We have invested in developing leaders across our medical, nursing, allied health and management teams so that our people have the skills, support and information they need to effectively manage teams. We will continue to roll out this training to support staff at a variety of levels across the hospital during the next three years.
Education and research
To be a great children’s hospital, the RCH must continue to connect research, education and clinical expertise, and work to ensure that clinical research quickly translates to treatment.
The RCH has a number of precinct partnerships that support its substantial contribution to research, education and clinical practice, by powering innovation and supporting the development of paediatric health providers across the state.
We are also committed to delivering corporate and non-clinical education and research that supports the quality and efficiency of our operations.
Training and education
The RCH is currently the leader in paediatric training for medical, nursing, and allied health staff in Victoria. Our campus partnership with The University of Melbourne – Department of Paediatrics makes the RCH a world-leading teaching hospital.
Clinical staff have access to a range of formal and informal professional development and learning opportunities, and we support clinical education outside the hospital through co-appointments of clinical staff with universities.
In partnership with the Monash Children’s Hospital, the RCH leads the Victorian Paediatric Training Program. The RCH also provide a range of broader teaching and training opportunities to Victorian health professionals including lectures at universities, working with schools and families, educating non-specialist clinicians in other hospitals, and mobile outreach in regional, rural and remote areas.
We are working to create a cohesive, technology-enabled education and research hub that will enable us to keep pace with the rapid advances in health and technology, and support health professionals everywhere with an interest in paediatrics.
The Melbourne Children’s Campus
The Melbourne Children’s Campus is comprised of the RCH, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The University of Melbourne – Department of Paediatrics, and the RCH Foundation. The Campus provides global leadership in integrated clinical care, education and research across paediatric health.
In addition to collaborating on research, The University of Melbourne provides undergraduate and post-graduate medical education and is involved in clinical care and policy development, as well as outreach and engagement activities across the campus.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is co-located with RCH and is the largest child health research institute in Australia with more than 1900 researchers, many of whom are RCH clinicians, working across infection and immunity, cell biology, clinical sciences, genetics, and population health.
Parkville Precinct
Together with the Royal Women’s Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, we make up the Parkville Precinct. This partnership will soon enjoy an integrated Electronic Medical Record (EMR), enabling us to draw on shared data for seamless care provision.
The Melbourne Biomedical Precinct
We are also a part of the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct, comprised of more than 40 hospitals, research, teaching and biotechnology organisations. It is one of the to 10 biomedical precincts globally and a driver of healthcare advances, economic growth and jobs for Victoria.
Technology
The RCH has become a more digitally focused hospital, using data-driven decision making to better manage our clinical care and financial, physical and human resources in response to increasing service demand and complexity.
Technology is enabling us to better co-ordinate clinical care and manage the expectations of patients and their families or carers. These benefits will continue to multiply as our systems become more sophisticated and integrated over the next three years.
Leveraging the Electronic Medical Record
Following the launch of our hospital-wide Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in 2016, the RCH has already seen significant improvements in patient care and accessibility.
By 2020, the Connected Care partnership between the RCH, the Royal Women’s the Royal Melbourne, and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will see us deliver an integrated EMR across all four health services that will improve communication, care and patient safety.
We are working to consolidate the impact of our EMR and in 2018 we launched the RCH Bridge – a digital command centre that enhances our ability to make real-time data-driven decisions.
Our online Activity Tracker is using real-time EMR data to predict wait-times in the RCH ED so that parents can make an informed decision about where to seek treatment.
The MyRCH Portal is giving patients, and their families, remote access to parts of their EMR and enabling them to access a range of associated services remotely. Approved GP clinics and regional hospitals can also remotely access our EMR, enabling better treatment and support for shared patients when they are not at the RCH.
These digital platforms are enabling us to better understand and anticipate demand for our services, while we support our patients and their families with greater control, flexibility and transparency around their care.
Informing and engaging
Beyond its direct impact on our patients and the hospital, our technology is also helping us deliver increased capability across the paediatric healthcare sector, via online and mobile resources such as our Paediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Emergency Paediatric Nursing App.
We also use digital platforms to inform and engage parents and carers, and the wider community, enabling them to better understand key issues affecting paediatric health.
The RCH Facebook page provides updates, information and videos relating to common paediatric health concerns, and our Kids Health Info factsheets now cover more than 175 topics with more than five million downloads each year.
The RCH National Child Health Poll, now entering its fourth year, is unique in Australia and has surveyed more than 24,000 households since it began, reaching more than seven million Australians each quarter through social and traditional media coverage.