The team at CSDS have been working hard these past months to provide responsive support to our healthcare services and the community during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. The pace at which things have evolved has been a challenge and CSDS has quickly adapted our service delivery model to embrace our new normal. Below are some of the ways CSDS continues to provide support to healthcare providers.
Health Emergency Operations Centre
As the situation began to ramp up, CSDS took steps to cancel all courses and events scheduled in our centre and we opened our doors to host the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) for Metro North. The HEOC is a quickly assembled team of multidisciplinary staff who coordinate the flow of information throughout directorate emergency operations centres and provide resources to the health service to support incident management and control.
CSDS has many years of expertise in audio visual (AV) system development and installation from its work in simulation AV systems, both fixed and portable. In conjunction with Metro North IT, CSDS supported the rapid development and installation of IT infrastructure for the HEOC, scaling up and down as needed to ensure that the team coordinating the emergency response to the pandemic had clear communication channels and appropriate technology.
Digital Metro North Command Centre
Also hosted at CSDS, the Queensland Digital Academy has been repurposed as a Digital Command Centre (DC3). The aim of DC3 is to provide responsive support to staff to access help and resources to successfully conduct work from home or in alternate locations. The diverse skillset of our CSDS staff has seen several team members redeployed to assist in DC3 call centres and in delivery of training sessions for staff to empower them to navigate working virtually.
Virtual Health
CSDS has also provided space and technological support to rapidly stand up Metro North’s virtual models of care including the Emergency Department and Ward. These virtual alternatives to traditional care have enabled the care of patients in the community to continue whilst visitor restrictions are in place within hospitals, and allows for the real time exchange of clinical information.
Digital media suite of COVID-19 resources
CSDS has also been collaborating with expert clinicians to create digital resources to support staff education.
How to fit and remove personal protective equipment in the correct order
Intubation of a COVID-19 patient
Extubation of a COVID-19 patient
Stay safe
CSDS is proud to play a role in supporting our healthcare providers and patients as Metro North and the state responds to the challenge of the pandemic. Due to the diverse skill sets of our staff it has been great to see the variety of areas we have been able to provide assistance in. From digital media to education, evaluation and technology support, we have worked with the emergency response units and the Department of Health to drive innovation and improvement. As the government sets out its road map for COVID-19, we encourage you all to continue to observe social distancing restrictions, practice good hand hygiene and cough etiquette. CSDS has many services we can offer. If you have a new idea you would like to discuss contact our team.
Take care of yourself and others.
More information and resources
The following links provide further information and resources on COVID-19:
