As Monash Health begins to open up the COVID-19 conversation, acknowledging the past and embracing the future, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the contribution made by our Monash Simulation team in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flashing back to the start of 2020, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) had just declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic, there was a lot of uncertainty and rapid change for healthcare workers across the globe. To assist our clinical teams in their preparation and planning for an influx of seriously ill COVID-19 patients, our team mobilised quickly, collaborating with key clinical and leadership stakeholders across Monash Health, to roll out a series of in-situ patient-pathway simulations at Casey, Dandenong and Clayton hospitals. These in-situ simulations aimed to help teams come together, test systems, identify potential issues, explore unique challenges and share solutions, creating streamlined workflows and new systems to provide care for COVID-19 patients. This was a huge collaborative effort, in a rapidly evolving situation, involving cooperation and coordination amongst our ED, ICU, Anaesthetic, Infection Prevention, Gen Med, Clinical Leadership and Monash Simulation teams. Simulations were run in our Emergency Departments, ICUs, COVID wards, Corridors, and everywhere in-between. A compilation of situations, including COVID intubations, MET calls, Code Blues, Ward / ICU transfers, and Deteriorating Patients, were all tested and reported on, creating a wholistic picture for future planning and clinical practice improvement.
Following on from the in-situ patient pathway simulations, new policies and procedures were informed, tested and refined, and a complex COVID-19 MET response training program was developed and implemented at Monash Simulation. The program incorporated rapidly evolving COVID-19 policies and procedures, providing opportunities for MET response team members to come together, discuss ongoing challenges, acknowledge personal experiences, and explore new strategies to best manage the unique and ever changing situation they were facing on a daily basis.
Fast forward to now, and it’s fair to say, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on all of us, in our own individual ways. For the Monash Simulation team, it was an opportunity for us to support our colleagues and provide a coordinated response, in an unparalleled moment in history.