Building innovation and excellence capability in partnership with Regional Local Health Networks

In June 2021, the CEIH launched the Region­al Local Health Net­work Part­ner­ship Ini­tia­tive which aimed to build health­care inno­va­tion and excel­lence capa­bil­i­ty with the nom­i­nat­ed par­tic­i­pants from the six Region­al Local Health Net­works (LHNs). Par­tic­i­pants were to utilise their learn­ings to brief an inno­v­a­tive project back to their LHN Exec­u­tive six months later. 

The par­tic­i­pants came from var­i­ous areas of health – some were Project Offi­cers, Qual­i­ty Risk and Safe­ty Coor­di­na­tors or from roles such as WHS Con­sul­tant, Hotel Ser­vices Man­age­ment and a RN/​Quality Link Nurse. Dur­ing the six-month ini­tia­tive, they par­tic­i­pat­ed in two face-to-face ses­sions, with CEIH Exec­u­tive and staff who pro­vid­ed con­tin­u­al men­tor­ing and sup­port through­out the program. 

Tai­lored work­shops were host­ed by the CEIH, cov­er­ing areas such as prob­lem fram­ing, design think­ing, project man­age­ment and using data insights. Par­tic­i­pants prac­ticed pitch­ing their pro­pos­als to mem­bers of CEIH Exec­u­tive who pro­vid­ed sup­port and men­tor­ing to fur­ther refine ideas and solu­tions, facil­i­tate intro­duc­tions and make con­nec­tions with­in the South Aus­tralian health sys­tem and beyond. 

The Part­ner­ship Ini­tia­tive cul­mi­nat­ed in par­tic­i­pants pre­sent­ing project briefs to their LHN Exec­u­tive team for dis­cus­sion and con­sid­er­a­tion. Four project pro­pos­als received LHN Exec­u­tive sup­port and are cur­rent­ly in progress and the CEIH com­mends these par­tic­i­pants for their efforts and success. 

Of the sup­port­ed project pro­pos­als, one is aimed at bet­ter use of data for patient out­comes and anoth­er looks at an inno­v­a­tive mod­el of food ser­vice in hos­pi­tals with­in an LHN. Oth­er par­tic­i­pants have absorbed learn­ings, skills and knowl­edge from the ini­tia­tive into their cur­rent work with sup­port from their Exec­u­tive and are commended.

Sev­er­al LHN line man­agers report­ed improve­ments in the par­tic­i­pants’ knowl­edge and skills and impor­tant­ly some not­ed their staff were now con­sid­er­ing issues at a sys­tems lev­el. Par­tic­i­pants self-report­ed increased con­fi­dence in prob­lem fram­ing and using inno­va­tion process­es and data insights. They also report­ed improved con­nec­tions with rel­e­vant agen­cies and had active­ly applied the tools and learn­ing to their every­day work.

Scott Mac-Diarmid, Hotel Ser­vices Man­ag­er from River­land Mur­ray Coorong Local Health Net­work was one of the del­e­gates involved in the Ini­tia­tive. He has been able to imple­ment sev­er­al key learn­ings from the pro­gram to devel­op a project with­in his LHN.

“Over the Region­al LHN Part­ner­ship Ini­tia­tive, I learned new tech­niques that made me look at prob­lem-solv­ing in a dif­fer­ent way….The great part of this is I have been able to apply these tech­niques back in my work­place allow­ing me to tack­le oth­er ideas, dreams, and chal­lenges with con­fi­dence and in greater detail. What start­ed out as my par­tic­i­pa­tion in the ini­tia­tive has turned into an impor­tant project address­ing a need for my LHN. I would not have been able to do this with­out the help and sup­port of the staff at CEIH.”

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all ten par­tic­i­pants of the LHN Region­al Part­ner­ship Initiative!

To learn more about our work, see Cur­rent projects.