Project Objectives, Project Principles and Design Principles, Vision

Project Objectives

The project involves the redevelopment of the Bendigo hospital and other associated Bendigo Health sites to:

• Expand Bendigo Health’s role in providing health care services consistent with the Victorian Government's emphasis on treating patients as close to home as possible
• Maintain and expand Bendigo Health's teaching role for the Loddon Mallee region
• Ensure sustainability of service provision locally and contribute to ensuring sustainability of service provision across the Loddon Mallee region
• Improve operational efficiency.

Vision

When the new Bendigo Hospital is commissioned in 2016, Bendigo Health will be a world-class regional health service in an integrated academic precinct.

It will be in the top quartile of comparable health services across Australia in terms of key performance indicators including access, quality and efficiency.

The community in Bendigo and beyond will have pride in their local regional health service and confidence in the ability of Bendigo Health to meet their needs.

The new Bendigo Hospital will provide a tranquil and caring environment.

Staff will be attracted to work in the new Bendigo Hospital by the commitment to ongoing learning, research and innovation in a 21st century environment.

The new Bendigo Hospital will welcome visitors with convenient parking and comfortable facilities.

The new Bendigo Hospital will be sustainable, energy-efficient and future-ready.

Bendigo Health will partner effectively with other health services in the Region and beyond to ensure continuity of care and local delivery of treatment where possible.

Information on Bendigo Health services will be readily available to patients and their families.

Modern technologies will support treatment and recuperation in hospital and at home where possible.

Bendigo Health will achieve this vision through:

Project Principles

The project principles are:

• Patients as active partners
• Continuity of Care
• Functional Flexibility
• Tranquillity
• Safe for patients and staff
• Enabling our people
• Sustainability and efficiency
• ICT enabled
• Connecting with Bendigo and the Loddon Mallee region.

Patients as active partners

• Patient empowerment is a high priority. By increasing the role of patients, families and carers, the new Bendigo hospital will be more responsive to patients' needs and preferences, delivering better quality care. Patients, families, carers and the community will have the opportunity to contribute in developing the new Bendigo hospital, through avenues such as community consultation and the community reference group.
• The ability for a co-ordinated and integrated patient journey to start and end at home. This means patient information management systems need to be accessible across the care continuum.
• Patients, families and carers will be given the tools to co-ordinate and manage their own care, with access to timely assistance and support from Bendigo Health as needed.
• Communication with patients, families and carers is always two-way.
• All aspects of the project will treat staff, patients, families, carers and the community with dignity and respect. Systems and processes will be developed on a wellness and holistic model where practical.

Continuity of care

• Patient journeys will be well connected and integrated across different streams of care and service locations in line with Bendigo Health’s philosophy of 'working as one'.
• Interdisciplinary care will be supported and encouraged in all aspects of service development and design. Staff from a variety of disciplines will work together with the patient, family and/or carer in a combined, co-ordinated approach.
• Patient movement will be minimised consistent with achieving timely, safe and effective interventions and clinical management. Where practical, treatment and assessment will go to the patient.
• Bendigo Health’s roles as a regional and as a local hospital will be clearly defined in healthcare and in clinical education. Where it is safe, effective and within Bendigo Health’s scope of practice, people will be treated as close to home as possible.

Functional flexibility

• As service models will change over time, there must be the ability to adapt the use of spaces easily and cost effectively. 'Future proofing' will be incorporated to support future service expansion and the need for changes in service delivery.
• Expansion capacity will be scalable to allow for the staged commissioning of increased capacity as required.

Tranquillity

• The environment and service systems will be designed to create a tranquil hospital for patients, families and carers.
• All patient beds will have natural light and access to views into outdoor, green areas.
• Patients will control their environment as much as is practical.

Safe for patients and staff

• Privacy and confidentiality will be respected for all patients, families and carers within the boundaries of patent safety and effective clinical management.
• Patients will feel connected to staff at all times.  Nursing staff can see and hear patients at all times.
• The facility will promote the connection between staff, patients and co-workers in ways that support timely high quality care eg generic layout including standardised room design and inpatient unit layout to support this concept.

Enabling our people

• The facility will support staff recruitment and retention by providing an attractive and comfortable place to work and by supporting an organisational culture that enables and supports innovation and high care standards.
• Staff facilities will be comfortable and enable informal staff gatherings and celebrations.
• Learning and education will be integrated into clinical settings.
• Tertiary training will be supported 'on the job' as well as in formal educational settings.
• Staff will have access to learning and innovation tools such as online learning simulation.
• Clinical research (approved trials) will be supported in all clinical settings.
• Leadership in regional health education will be supported through avenues such as the education precinct.
• Systems will support active learning at work through online learning and teaching at bedside.
• The project will contribute to learning and research (knowledge development, discovery, dissemination and transfer) by taking what we have learnt throughout the project and share with others.
• The New Bendigo Hospital will be connected with, and will be, an integral part of the surrounding academic precinct, offering a co-ordinated approach to education and training through joint appointments. We will offer education and training across the organisation that complements university partners.

Sustainability and efficiency

• The project will be as environmentally sustainable as possible in both design and implementation.
• Business sustainability will be supported to improve operating efficiency, providing care within our means by working within our budget.
• The project will support the workforce mix, recruitment and retention needed to deliver project outcomes by providing a mix of skills and number of people to match those skills.
• Sustainability will be supported by the use of standardisation where possible in all aspects of the project, eg generic inpatient units.
• Systems and practices will support the concept of 'do it once', minimising unnecessary repetition.

Information and Communication Technology enabled

• The New Bendigo Hospital will be information and communication technology enabled to facilitate effective care delivery and efficient work practices.
• The information and communication technology component of the project will contribute to delivering the project outcomes (new advancements will help deliver what we want to achieve) and will be consistent with state and national ICT policy (HealthSMART and National Broadband Network).
• Priorities for investment are:
• Clinical informatics capability
• Well defined, robust infrastructure
• Electronic medical record
• Unified communications systems
• Real time location systems
• Fully integrated 'information management' – including data management, data security and integrity, resource management systems.
• The project will provide the foundations required to support further development.

Connecting with Bendigo and the wider Loddon Mallee region

• The project will demonstrate connections to the community and the history of Bendigo making the project for everyone by promoting cultural ties and links with our history.
• Bendigo Health is part of a health service system in and beyond Bendigo and is the regional hospital for the Loddon Mallee region. Working in partnership with other providers is, and will increasingly be, a vital aspect of effective care delivery.
• The New Bendigo Hospital will be welcoming for the community; it will not be a 'fortress'.
• The New Bendigo Hospital will welcome and celebrate the diverse cultures that are part of Bendigo and surrounding communities. An important community to be recognised is the local Aboriginal community and their connection to the land on which the hospital will be built.

Design Principles

Note that the design principles are linked to one or more project principles.

• Connectivity and flexibility across the precinct including integration of work processes and flows.
• Generic layouts including standardised room design.
• Legible and highly inclusive (attractive and functional) landscape and public spaces.
• Design solutions will enable collaborative and interdisciplinary care.
• Implement smart technologies to integrate and streamline work processes.
• A tranquil hospital to maximise patient, staff and visitor well-being.
• High quality indoor environment.
• The new facilities should be designed to be low-energy and future-ready to accommodate changes in energy supply.
• Support flexibility for conversion with occupancy changes.
• Maximise adaptability to support work practice changes.
• Allow for service expansion to meet future demand.
• Support safe and efficient work practices.
• Separation of ambulatory and inpatient traffic.
• Patient facilities will reflect a patient centred approach to care.
• Informed by evidence based design and other relevant evidence.
• Functional layout to support care co-ordination and efficient care delivery.
• Interior design will be uplifting, calming and promote healing.
• Patients, families and carers have access to retreat areas – areas that enable reflection and are separate from treatment areas.
• Facilities will be welcoming.
• Facilities will be elder-friendly.
• Family-friendly environment for patients, families and carers.
• Patients will have access to information from home.
• Families and carers will have appropriate access to inpatients at any time of the day.
• Patients, families and carers will be consulted by Bendigo Health on key design issues.
• Patient movement will be minimised.
• All inpatients will have access to natural light and views.
• Inpatients will have control over their environment.
• Maximise patient dignity, privacy and confidentiality.
• The location of staff workstations will enable appropriate visual and/or aural contact to be maintained with inpatients at all times.
• Support formal and informal opportunities to learn.
• All clinical settings will accommodate practice-based research.
• All clinical areas will have access to appropriate staff-only spaces.
• Promote staff wellbeing and health.
• Promote staff connectedness through ad hoc professional and social interaction.
• Minimise specific purpose patient waiting areas.
• Natural light will be maximised in public and staff spaces.
• Intuitive and clear way giving.
• Ease of travel to and from the facility is integral to access.
• The facility must respect the history of Bendigo Health and the local community.
• Facilitate ongoing community engagement.
• Separation of public, patient and staff traffic.
• Goods and supply functions will be separate from clinical functions.
• Respect and welcome diverse cultures and beliefs.
• The scale of the facility should be optimised for patient flow and designed to maximise patient contact time.

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