Optimising Mater’s new Cancer Care Centre Redland through Simulation
Ahead of this week’s opening of the Mater Cancer Care Centre Redland, Mater Education’s simulation team assisted the team at Mater Private Hospital Redland to test the new facilities, to emulate real-world scenarios. Each simulated experience was designed to mitigate risk, enhance the experience of patients and staff, and to ensure that the newly built centre was ready for operation before opening.
To assist with the simulation Mater staff and patients were on hand to act out the scenarios and identify any areas which could be improved ahead of the opening. Mater Education’s Simulation Educator, Pauline Lyon, was a part of the team conducting the simulation.
"Mater Private Hospital Redland engaged and worked with the Simulation team to conduct simulation systems and process testing.”
“The goal was to ensure centre readiness and that existing procedures including managing a normal patient journey from admission, to care provision, through to discharge and management of an emergency, were transferable and would cause minimal disruptions to both patients and staff,” Pauline said.
After completion of the simulation the Mater Private Hospital Redland team felt that they have established operational readiness and identified minor potential issues that could be rectified prior to opening.
Mater Cancer Care Centre Redland patient, Giles, who volunteered to participate as a simulated patients, appreciated the level of detail that was reviewed. During the simulation his observations and thoughts were taken into consideration to ensure a quality service for all future patients of the new centre.
“I was very impressed with the simulation held at the new facility and appreciated the involvement as a patient. It was great to see the entire Mater team all contributing to ensure the best experience—given the circumstances—is delivered for patients, their families and for the staff involved,” Giles said.
“My family and I have always been grateful for the service of care at Mater Private Hospital Redland; from the welcoming we receive at reception, the skilled chemo staff and specialists, to the auxiliary volunteers and pastoral carers. Their smiling faces and happy demeanours are always appreciated and contribute to a relaxing environment for a process that can be hard to come to terms with at the best of times. From my experience the new centre only adds to this patient experience,” Giles said.
“The clever design allows patients to either be alone in their own thoughts, or open up the partition to have a more social experience, which can make the session pass quicker. Most of all, the new chemo chairs are incredible and extremely comfortable.”
“The time, effort, design and funding that has gone into this centre is going to make a considerable difference to our comfort and experience. It also means we can continue to enjoy having such a great facility on our doorstep in the Redland community,” Giles said.
Cheryl McWilliams, Education Coordinator, reflected on the experience saying, “everybody involved from administration staff, patients, clinical staff and education staff found the exercise to be beneficial and identified several changes and actions to be addressed. We all really enjoyed the experience and found it very beneficial for how we continue to provide the highest quality of care to our patients.”
