The third cohort of Clinical Excellence Queensland’s Healthcare Improvement Fellows have officially commenced.

Improving kidney patient outcomes and kidney services in Central Queensland was the focus of a recent visit to Rockhampton Hospital by members of the Advancing Kidney Care Project Delivery Team.

In December 2017, Australia introduced a more effective method for cervical screening meaning that for most patients, pap smears were not required every two years. While the latest medical and scientific evidence shows the new cervical screening test is more effective at detecting the human papillomavirus (HPV), the referral rate for colposcopy has increased because of the number of women with positive HPV results.

The Healthcare Improvement Fellowship saw its cohort triple in 2019, with the 11 fellows coming from all over Queensland. The fellowship program uses a ‘virtual classroom’ to connect participants and holds several in-person residential workshops over the year.

The Office of the Chief Dental Officer (OCDO), in partnership with the Refugee Health Network Queensland and Refugee Oral Health Working Group (ROHWG), have translated their ‘How to brush your teeth’ stickers to multiple languages. These instructions encourage better tooth brushing among refugee and asylum seeker communities, and will be given to all newly arrived families in Queensland.

A new telehealth program is partnering with families in Queensland’s far south west to access specialist-level diagnostic child development services (CDS) closer to home.

The Transition 2 sub-acute (T2SA) project emerged from early work undertaken by a group of allied health professionals from across the central and north-west belt of Queensland. Staff came together to explore ways to improve the patient’s sub-acute journey, especially for those from rural and remote communities.

Richard Harris, a physiotherapist and rural generalist trainee at Longreach Hospital, was at a stage in his career where he was looking for a new challenge. He was ready to study again and thanks to the Queensland Health Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway, he could.

'Recognising the critically unwell child' was a recurring theme at our recent Sepsis Breakthrough Collaborative learning session.