Overview
Ipswich Hospital is the largest hospital in the West Moreton Hospital and Health Service based in Queensland, Australia. The hospital provides a range of specialist health services with over 2000 doctors, nurses and other health professionals employed at the hospital.
Key Challenges
Ipswich Hospital experienced 2 key health service challenges:
- Roll out of training for all staff in readiness for their largest change management process this decade and Digital Hospital
- School holidays saw a spike in sick/family leave use and low employee engagement
Some have even listed enabling and engaging
staff as another focus. In a developed country like Australia, improved patient care is a constant focus in the healthcare industry. As a result, innovative solutions are required to achieve this goal.
Solution
KidsCo ran a unique 9-day school holiday program to alleviate the stress on parents and carers during the school holidays. The location and hours of care were adjusted to support the Ipswich Hospital team.
To accommodate the number of children attending the programs, KidsCo sourced a safe and convenient space at a local school. KidsCo also adjusted operating hours to be from 6:00 am – 6:00 pm to support shift workers who also had caring responsibilities.
Impact
Over the holiday period, the Ipswich Hospital saw an improvement in the following:
- Reduction in external agency use by 443.15 hours
- 35% reduction in paid sick leave ($76,320) during the 2-week school holidays
- Reduction in unpaid sick leave 17.11 FTE
They found their staff were more engaged at work and shift workers were able to maintain their regular shifts and attend to regular patients. 68% of employees strongly agreed that the provision of a school holiday program in their workplace meant they did not need to access family leave day to care for children.
This to us means more than just keeping people at work. It means we really demonstrate that we care about our staff and we care about our community.
– Luke Worth, Executive Director
Want to see how we can support your goals? Speak to our team here.
