Decision before incision
Westmead Hospital department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine staff specialist Dr Claire Kim is on track to become a clinical leader of the future.
Dr Kim recently graduated from the Clinical Excellence Commission’s (CEC) Executive Clinical Leadership Program.
CEC Governance and Assurance director Dr Paul Curtis said program participants join the program with a desire to achieve improvements in how they and their colleagues care for patients.
“Each graduate identifies an area where they feel improvements could be achieved and presents a clinical improvement project as part of their final work,” said Dr Curtis.
Westmead Hospital staff specialist Dr Claire Kim’s project, called Decision before Incision, focused on providing patients with complex medical conditions an extended clinical assessment involving consultation with a panel of medical specialists.
“Some of the changes we made allowed more time to assess the patients who are really sick before surgery. This encouraged us to have closer communication with our surgeons and the referring GPs,” Dr Kim said.
“We’re now able to help our teams plan and execute future improvement projects including postoperative patient reviews for high-risk patients.
“Our team looks forward to ongoing improvements in each patients’ journey through surgery at Westmead Hospital.”
For further information about the CEC program, visit: http://www.cec.health.nsw.gov.au/quality-improvement/improvement-academy/qi-academy-curriculum/CLP
