Support Services

Clinical Support Services including Pathology, Pharmacy, Hotel Services, the Clinical Safety and Quality Unit, Research Support Centre, Medical Management Unit and Centre for General Practice provide complex wide services to Mater’s diverse range of hospitals.

Some of the 2007 highlights for Clinical Support Services include:

  • Mater Pathology continued to expand their off-site presence with the introduction of a new home collection service for Bayside residents.
  • The Lean process-improvement philosophy was adopted in Pathology. This has reduced both the turnaround time and the variation in turnaround time for urgent chemistry testing by 20% compared to March 2006 base data.
  • A care improvement searchable database was implemented to facilitate the reporting, collating and showcasing of care improvement activities across Mater Health Services.
  • A Risk Manager position was created and filled to integrate categories of risk across the organisation and coordinate business risk activities.
  • A new Café on Three staff dining facility opened in November. It includes two made to order sandwich bars, ‘grab & go’ section, and a balcony equipped with a barbeque.

Some highlights from non-clinical support services include:

  • Engineering and Environmental Services developed a series of initiatives to reduce Mater’s water usage and help us become more sustainable.
  • Mater commenced a pilot of a new clinical portal that provides clinicians with a single point of access to Mater’s electronic clinical information systems. The new system from IP Health, known as Verdi, provides clinicians with convenient and timely electronic access to diagnostic results, dispensed drugs, Mater’s electronic discharge summary, theatre, obstetric, neonatal and oncology clinical information.
  • Mater’s new Obstetric Clinical Information System, Matrix, was successfully deployed in the Mater Mothers’ Hospitals. The system, designed in collaboration with obstetricians and midwives, delivers significant productivity savings in the collection and recording of key obstetric and perinatal clinical information.