Support Services

Phone: (03) 5722 5399

The Facilities and Maintenance (F&M) is located centrally within the campus between Green & Dixon Streets. The team consists of a Chief Engineer, Administrative Assistant, Maintenance Manager, four (4) Trades and three (3) General Hands and Car Cleaner. The role is to manage the buildings assets, also grounds and gardens across two campuses; Green St and Illoura. The provision services infrastructure (excluding data/communications) and management of the mandatory fire, health and safety requirements. F&M also manage the leasing and maintenance residential accommodations both owned and leased that are provided for clinicians. Green Street Campus consists of acute and mental health inpatient and outpatient clinical services, other non clinical support services and arrangements with Melbourne University:

• Inpatient – 8,021m2
• Outpatient – 4,565m2
• Mental Health (combined) – 1,835m2
• Non Clinical – 5,231m2
• Melbourne Uni – 1,127m2
• Vacant – Linen service 1,810m2 and top level Matthew Rohan, 1,424m2 = 3234m2.

Illoura Nursing Home Campus is a 62 bed inpatient aged care facility of 2,960m2.

Residences consist of two blocks of units, one house and many leased accommodation properties around the Green St Campus:

• Owned – 1071m2 consisting of two blocks of 8 and 4 units, a two bedroom house, also 11 rooms with shared facilities.
• Leased – these vary depending on the requirements for clinicians but on average there are 23 properties on lease at any one time.

The services infrastructure includes; water, sewage, electricity, gas, lifts, medical gases, HVAC and grounds. Mandatory fire, health and safety requirements include; Chief Warden’s role, management of legionella, asbestos, fire resistance & prevention, emergency lighting & power. F&M also distribute and return Palliative Care loan equipment throughout the NE region to as far as Mt Beauty. F&M perform mandatory reporting functions including fire health & safety, energy and sustainability to the Department of Health. F&M use the following computerised management systems for efficient operation:

• BEIMS for job request, processing, tracking and reporting
• Sphere & Innotech Building Management Systems
• AutoCAD drawing package
• Commander & CMS Emergency lighting management systems
• Supco – Logit data capture system.

Department / Unit Specific goals:

The goals relating to F&M reflect the wide ranging service provision across campuses.

• Improve the operation, data capture and reporting functions of BEIMS
• Improved service provision to all clients
• Increase the training component within the department.

Primary customers are:

F&M provide maintenance, fire health & safety and infrastructure planning services to all operation business units within the NHW Organisation. F&M are also responsible for sourcing, managing and reporting accommodation for the large number of clinicians, students and registrars associated with NHW.

Hours of operation:

F&M operate normal business hours 07:30 to 16:30 Monday to Friday. But also provide a 24/7 Engineer on call service for breakdowns and emergency situations.

2011 saw the completion of two major projects on the hospital campus

The $200,000 refurbishment of the existing cafeteria and Coffee Shop into a single Cafe for both staff and visitors enjoyment.

The $700,000 chilled water upgrade. This project has resolved the lack of chilled water supply in the acute hospital for the air conditioning cooling particularly during high demands as experienced during the summer of 2010.

Phone: (03) 5722 5266

The Health Information Service (formerly Medical Record Department) is primarily responsible for the creating, care, storage, issue and retrieval of health information.  Other responsibilities include the timely and accurate diagnosis and procedure coding, collection of statistical data on the hospital’s activity and throughput, providing data for both internal and external requests and ensuring the design and content of the medical record meets the needs of the user and conforms with recognised standards.

Functions of the Health Information Service:

• To retrieve, supply and maintain medical records as required for direct patient care.
• To provide and maintain an efficient record storage system in which patient information is kept safe from loss, damage and unauthorised access.
• To ensure diagnosis and procedure coding is performed in an accurate and timely manner to enable optimal diagnosis related group assignment.
• To collect statistical data on the hospital’s activity and throughput, and disseminate the information to management and external authorities within the required time frame for funding purposes.
• To provide health information for both internal and external requests for planning, research, education, patient care, freedom of information requests and other purposes, in accordance with hospital policies and statutory requirements.
• To maintain registers, indexes and databases of patients and health information.
• To provide advice and education on casemix related issues, which involve documentation, coding and diagnosis related group allocation.
• To ensure the design and content of the medical record meets the needs of users and conforms to recognised standards.
• To provide advice to other hospital departments in relation to records (clinical and non-clinical), including design, retention, storage and disposal.

Health Information Management Education and Training is available through La Trobe University.

Phone: (03) 5722 5224

The Hospitality Department provides traditional hotel and housekeeping services for patients, staff and visitors to Northeast Health Wangaratta.  The team of qualified and skilled cooks, wait staff, cleaners, orderlies and security personnel deliver high quality goods and services which meet all Victorian and Australian Standards in Health Care.  In house and externally provided training within the department ensure highly desirable employment opportunities and career pathways.  NHW Food Services also provides excellent function capabilities available to the Wangaratta community and service groups.

NHW Environmental Services cleaning and portering staff ensure patients’ stays are comfortable with rooms and patient transport being maintained to Australian Standards.  Patient Security services are provided 24 hours, 7 days a week by our in house, qualified team of Security Officers.

NHW Food Services Department provides a full range of food and beverage requirements to patients in Aged Care, Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Care facilities.  Menus have been developed collaboratively with the NHW Dietitians and other Allied Health professionals to ensure appropriate nutrition and hydration is available to all patients.

Patients treated by NHW Post Acute Care services have the opportunity to receive meals at home following discharge.  This service is provided to assist in the patient’s return to normal activities when they return home.

The Food Services Department coordinates the local Meals On Wheels (MOW) service on behalf of the Wangaratta Meals On Wheels Committee Inc.  This valuable service relies on the generosity of the MOW volunteer program and Wangaratta service clubs working with NHW to deliver appropriate meals for people in the community requiring assistance.  The MOW Coordinator can be contacted by phoning (03) 5722 5293 or fax (03) 5722 5131.

Phone: (03) 5722 5245

Information Technology provides computer facilities for the entire organisation, including 24 hour support for essential services.  The computer network is vital to the healthy management of patients as it provides rapid electronic access to diagnostic results, with a high regard on the confidentiality of patient information.  Hospital doctors can locate results and discharge information quickly and efficiently in the hospital and GPs can do so at their own clinic by NHW remote access.

Phone: (03) 5722 5286

The RM Mounsey Library provides information and library services to support the clinical, research and continuing education needs of staff and students of Northeast Health Wangaratta, the University of Melbourne Rural Clinical School staff and students and affiliated health professionals throughout the region.

The library holds a comprehensive collection of textbooks and journals, a wide range of electronic resources, offers a document supply service and provides a pleasant study environment for our staff and students.

The library is located in “The Chalet”, adjacent to the Rural Clinical School and can be accessed by the public by appointment between 9am and 3pm Monday to Friday.  For more information please call (03) 5722 5286, fax (03) 5722 5112 or email: julie.day@nhw.hume.org.au

(03) 5722 5111

The Supply Department is responsible for a wide range of service which include the ordering and distribution of all medical and surgical, environmental, uniform and stationery supplies.  It is also responsible for the management of fleet vehicles to all areas within the organisation.

It is imperative that adequate stock be made available at all times, to ensure that staff from both NHW and regional organisations can carry out their daily duties.

Phone: (03) 5722 5111

Situated within the operating suite, the Sterilisation Services Department, (SSD) has a core staff of nine Instrument Technicians. SSD is responsible for the decontamination, cleaning, wrapping and sterilising of all instruments and surgical stock. The unit operates Monday to Friday between the hours of 7.00 am until 9.30 pm. Public Holidays and weekends excluded and also provides an On Call service for Public Holidays and weekends.

In addition to all in house work SSD provides the above services to other Public and Private practices throughout the north east region of Victoria.

SSD staff  at Northeast Health Wangaratta are proud not only of the complete service they provide but also our “state of the art” instrument washers, sterilizers, diagnostic equipment and our high compliance with the Australian  and New Zealand Standards, AS4187.