I'm definitely on sensory overload as there are so many things to take in - the language and the use of words is always so intriguing. The landscape is ruggedly beautiful, and once again the people are at the heart of what makes Australia Australia. They are fun loving and hard working with open hearts for us where ever we go in this expansive country. 

 

Tuesday, October 20 - At the suggestion of my good friend, Gene Dankbar, I requested a visit with the Public Affairs and Quality Teams of Royal Melbourne Hospital. Two of the Public Affairs team had recently visited hospitals in the US including Mayo Clinic where they met Gene and Ann Schauer. I was greeted at 1000 Tuesday morning by Melea from Public Affairs and treated to an awesome tour of Royal Melbourne Hospital. Highlights of the tour included a walk through the 60+ bay ED, the small intimate simulation lab used to orient new staff and train current staff on new procedures led by Jenn. Jenn was indeed very passionate about her duty to help staff learn and change behaviors. Next stop was the skin prosthetics lab where Melea introduced me to 2 gentlemen who are not only highly skilled technicians in creating facial and other skin prostheses, but are indeed angels and artists. They give people, who have been scarred by cancer and accidents, another chance at life and the confidence to go out in public again. 

 

I spent Tuesday afternoon with Fiona Watson, Director of Transformation and Quality and her team of professionals who cover Accreditation, Patient Safety, Patient Experience, and Clinical Quality. They have just completed the first Pascal Metrics survey, in which they surveyed ALL patient care units within the hospital. Of note, they thought getting ready for the survey was very labor intensive as their Human Resources system was not able to produce information needed for the survey - sound familiar? It was so interesting to learn that we share not only a similar staffing structure, but common issues and concerns about physician engagement and staff learning around using continuous improvement in the overarching quest for excellence. They are all supported by a very committed CEO. 

 

Every day we are treated royally by the Kirby's including the comfort of the Stables to lay our heads down at night and the fabulously healthy home cooked meals. Yes, I've even said "I like lamb shanks". 

 

We actually needed Wednesday to do a little laundry, catch up with ourselves, and learn about the local train system so that we could commute into Melbourne on Thursday morning to catch the Melbourne Coastal Tours to Philip Island. Wednesday was also the day we encountered kangaroos in the paddock right outside the stables.  An amazing site to see seven of them hop right in front of us. 

 

Thursday, Graham dropped us at the train where we used our myki card to "tap on" at the train station and commuted into the city to catch the tour bus where we tapped off (the charging mechanism for riding the bus or train - quite efficient). Both in Sydney and Melbourne you "pre-load" a credit card and then use as you commute. At the conclusion of trip the passenger "taps-off" and the amount for that ride is deducted from the myki card.  Sydney has a similar system for the bus referred to as the Opal card. 

 

The Melbourne Coastal tour company is a small family owned operation and operates tours of 11 or less. We spent the day under Shane's watchful eye as he took us around the Mornington Peninsula with the goal of watching the night time penguin parade as the little blue penguins march from the ocean after a day of fishing, to feed their young who are waiting back home in their little burrows. It's quite spectacular to see this phenomenon that occurs daily. http://youtu.be/IbcPnc-vZuM

 

Along the way we stopped at a working bee farm where we met Billy the Beekeeper and his wife Mary.an awesome boutique winery, and Australian animal sanctuary where Bob was able to hand feed wallabies and kangaroos. `` We arrived back at the Melbourne train station about 1045 pm where Graham and their son David picked us up and delivered us safely back to the stables. It was a quick night as we planned to depart to Echuca to board the houseboat for a weekend tour of the Murray River. 

 

More about that over the weekend. We miss you all and can't believe that we're about to start our final week here in Australia.