VISITING HOSPITAL

All hospital visitors are recommended to wear a medical face mask. Expand this message for information about visiting hospital.

Last updated:
13 March 2023

Some visitor restrictions for all Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury hospitals and health facilities remain in place, but we have relaxed others.

There is still a heightened risk to vulnerable people in hospital and so we recommend all people wear a mask when visiting any of our facilities and follow other advice designed to keep patients, staff and  visitors safe.

To keep everybody safe:

  • Visitors or support people must not visit our facilities if they are unwell. Do not visit if you have recently tested positive for COVID-19 and haven’t completed your isolation period.
  • Patients may have more than one visitor, except in some situations such as multi-bed rooms where it can cause overcrowding.
  • Surgical/medical masks are recommended to be worn at all sites. Masks will be provided if you don’t have one.
  • For Specialist Mental Health Services everyone is strongly encouraged to wear a face mask in all inpatient areas and areas where consumers are receiving care (i.e. community appointments, home-visits, transporting people). Discretion may be applied in cases where masks impair your ability to communicate effectively.
  • Visitors must not eat or drink in multibed rooms because of the increased risk when multiple people remove their face mask in the same space.
  • Hand sanitiser is available and must be used.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as our staff work hard to protect and care for some of the most vulnerable in our community.

Visiting patients with COVID-19

  • People can visit patients who have COVID-19 but they must wear an N95 mask – this will be provided if you don’t have one.
  • Other methods of communication will be facilitated e.g. phone, Facetime, Zoom, WhatsApp etc where visits aren’t possible.

All of our Hospitals

Visiting hours for our hospitals have returned to pre COVID-19 hours with the exception of Christchurch Women’s Hospital.

All visitors are recommended to wear a medical face mask.

Parents/caregivers are able to be with their child in hospital and visitors are now allowed, except for the Children’s Haematology and Oncology Day stay where just one parent/caregiver is able to attend their appointment with their child. Exceptions by special arrangement only.

Patients and visitors should also read the additional more detailed visiting guidelines for each specific hospital.

More COVID-19 information

Digital workflow helps staff optimise operating theatre use

Wednesday 16 May 2018Media release3 minutes to read

THIS IS AN ARCHIVED PAGE. The advice and information contained in this page may not be current and it should only be used for historical reference purposes.

Christchurch Hospital introduced new software called ScOPe in 2013, originally designed to replace paperwork for surgical staff.

Surgeon Saxon Connor says that over the past five years Canterbury DHB staff have worked with the developers to tailor the software to create a better system for patients and staff.

Staff use ScOPe to manage patient flow, update and observe their information in surgical theatres, and record operation notes.

Improved patient flow means patients aren't prepped for surgery prematurely and that the post-op team and family are in the recovery area at just the right time. All these efficiencies together ensure as little theatre downtime as possible and less time spent waiting by patients and staff.

Surgeons also use ScOPe to check on long-term outcomes, which Saxon says used to take hours of registrars' time to look up manually.

“We've got real-time visibility over what's happening in the theatre block,” he says.

Nurses, anaesthetists and surgeons previously filled out a series of paper forms, which were often incomplete or illegible.

The forms were used to create waiting lists several pages long, which surgeons had to hunt down and print out.

“Of course, as soon as I did another clinic, that list was out of date,” Saxon says.

If surgeons made extra time on their daily list, they would call and ask administration to book in more patients.

“There was no way of ranking patients or working out who should be next, it was just kind of this random process, so it wasn't particularly fair or streamlined.”

The digital forms in ScOPe are pared back to essential questions surgeons need to answer; they are quick to fill out and always legible.

ScOPe also gathers information about surgeons, and is better at predicting how long certain procedures will take.

“Surgeons are always optimistic and say it'll take an hour when it takes three,” Saxon says.

The information creates a more accurate waiting list for each surgeon, and allows them to control it themselves. Surgeons can see which patients have been waiting the longest and book them in if space appears on the list.

They can even take patients from other surgeons' lists, with their permission.

“It's fair and transparent,” Saxon says.

An operation note is now available for other staff to see before the patient hits recovery. Previously this was dictated, transcribed and published – a process which often took several days.

Clinical Nurse Specialist Kirsten Walsh says ScOPe lets nurses plan recovery beds and surgery preparation that depends on knowing accurately how long active surgeries are going to take.

Much of this information was difficult to get before ScOPe, and clinical staff would phone between wards and the surgical block to update each other – all taking up valuable time and increasing the likelihood of confusion.

“It has certainly reduced the number of phone calls back and forth,” she says.

“Discussion around surgeries can happen a lot sooner because we can see our capacity, we can see our demand. It's all there on a large display screen and is updated regularly.”

Canterbury DHB uses ScOPe as part of its focus on using technology to improve healthcare for patients and staff.

ENDS

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Page last updated: 19 October 2022

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