Member Spotlight: Delivering Person Centred Care at Mildura Base Public Hospital

Find out how one of our Member organisations have gone above and beyond to deliver high quality and safe care.

1.    Tell us about Mildura Base Public Hospital.

Mildura Base Public Hospital (MBPH) is a level 1 tertiary teaching health service, with around 1200 staff. The hospital is a major public referral service for the Northern Mallee region and provides services to the community of Mildura and the Sunraysia District, approximately 80,000 people.

It is a 172-bed facility that offers health services in Emergency, Maternity, Intensive Care, Oncology, General Medicine, Surgery, Medical Imaging, Dialysis, Mental Health and Ambulatory Services. Every year MBPH experiences over 850 births, 34000 presentations to the ED, and over 6000 operations.

The hospital has affiliations with Monash and La Trobe University for the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate Medical, Nursing and Allied Health education.

Additionally, the hospital has just opened a Clinical Trials and Research Unit (CTRU) in February 2023, made possible by community donations through our Foundation. 



2.    How has Mildura focused on person centred care?

Our Person-Centred Care (PCC) policy promotes the five principles of PCC that reflect and promote substitute decision maker (SDM):

• Getting to know the person
• Sharing the power and responsibility
• Accessibility and flexibility
• Co-ordination & Integration
• Environments.

MBPH undertakes Bedside Handover which provides opportunities for patients to discuss their care with treating staff. Additionally, patient information brochures are available to help patients to know their rights around being involved in decisions about their care.

Our newly updated patient communication boards allow documentation of patient or family concerns and questions that any care provider can easily see and attend to.



3.    Describe your recent great work in delirium management.

Since early 2021, the Delirium Committee at MBPH has overseen a number of initiatives. The most prominent of which is the implementation of the ‘Delirium Care Bundle’ – a highly specialised tool for all staff to use which aims to not only improve the care of those identified as experiencing delirium, but also aiming to prevent hospital-acquired delirium through a rigorous screening process. 

The tool identifies relevant patients who may be at risk of developing delirium on admission (and throughout), including:

• Those aged 65 years or over, or 45 years and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
• Those with a serious medical illness 
• Those with a current hip fracture 
• Those with a known cognitive impairment

The Delirium Care Bundle provides clinicians with the tools needed to improve patient outcomes, from admission, during their episode of care, and even continuing on post-discharge.

4.    How was your assessment experience? 

Our most recent Assessment cycle, in March 2022, was the first accreditation cycle for the new MBPH, following transition to public administration. It was great to showcase the large body of work that the transition teams undertook in making the switch from Private to Public Administration safe and achieving our objective of providing high quality care to our patients. We enjoyed highlighting our COVID responsiveness and the key strategic partnerships and initiatives such as the Northern Mallee Integrated Partnership (NMIP) to the assessment team. 

5.    Do you have any advice for other members going through assessment?

We believe in having regular and supportive dialogue with your ACHS Customer Service Manager. This has been a key element of our Accreditation preparedness and understanding the new Short Notice Accreditation Assessment Model. As a remote and regional health service, we rely heavily on state-wide networks, partnerships and colleagues to learn lessons as they share their assessment experiences with us.

We also recommend the use of the Commission online tools and resources and ensuring all initiatives and projects are incorporating latest advice and best practice. 

Photo 1 caption: Fleur Manno (left), MBPH Director of Patient Safety & Improvement, and Lauren Gailey (right), ACHS Customer Services Manager, on a recent visit.
Photo 2 caption: Aboriginal artwork covering ceiling of MBPH entry foyer to welcome consumers and adds connection to the space.
Photo 3 caption: MBPH philosophy on entry wall of Ward 4 (Sub Acute)