Southern DHB celebrates outstanding staff at awards night

Southern DHB celebrated its remarkable staff from across the district at the Southern Excellence Awards last night.

Held simultaneously in the Otago Polytechnic Hub in Dunedin and Bill Richardson Transport Museum in Southland, the Awards evening was established to recognise the many ways in which excellence is reflected across Southern DHB.

“2020 has been an extraordinary year for everyone, especially those working in Health. This year’s nominees and winners are an exceptional group of people who have excelled in their roles and deserve to be thanked and acknowledged. This is the third year we have run the Southern Excellence Awards. Nominees come from across our diverse teams and include leaders, clinical staff, technicians, carers and change-makers,” says Southern DHB Chief Executive, Chris Fleming.

“The Awards are about acknowledging staff and the very important roles they play in providing care and support across the Southern Health system.”

This year winners have been selected across nine categories representing the diversity in healthcare delivery and services.

The awards include: the Graham Crombie Outstanding Leadership Award, Behind the Scenes (Unsung Hero), Team of the Year, Breaking Boundaries, Rising Star, Outstanding Care and Compassion, Southern Future Values Champion and the Māori Health Development Award. The winners of each category will receive a professional development grant.

The challenge of COVID-19 to our health system and the response on Southern DHB staff featured prominently in this year’s awards. The Graham Crombie Outstanding Leadership Award was won by Southern DHB Medical Officer of Health, Dr Susan Jack for her Public Health leadership, and the Team of the Year Award went to the district-wide Public Health Covid-19 Response Team.

“I’m sure all Southerners would support acknowledging the efforts of Dr Jack and her colleagues in Public Health,” Mr Fleming says.

The Southern Excellence Awards are an annual event that started in 2018.

SOUTHERN EXCELLENCE AWARDS CATEGORIES AND WINNERS

‘Behind the Scenes (Unsung Hero)’

This award recognises an individual or team within corporate and support services, who consistently go above and beyond the call of duty in their day-to-day work to support the core and frontline services of the DHB.

The winner in this category is passionate and effective in her drive for excellence and improvement across the DHB, and her work supports many of the organisational key activities and innovations. She quietly and efficiently connects people and teams, captures the big picture, informs this with data, and equips and challenges clinical teams – all with the highest personal integrity and work ethic.

Despite not having one-on-one patient interactions, improving the system for individual patients and the teams providing care is always at the centre of her work. She engages clinical teams in a way that demonstrates value and generates buy in, using robust change methodology and data insights to inform service planning and quality improvement.

Congratulations to Chris Crane (Dunedin) – Strategy and Planning Manager, Strategy Primary and Community

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‘Breaking Boundaries’

This award recognises an individual or team who have broken boundaries through working in partnership with primary and community providers and external stakeholder organisations.

There are joint winners in this category for 2020:

• This joint winner has worked tirelessly to develop a model of care for Rheumatology that is built on true partnership with Primary Care, leading the way in our District on the development of new models of care in line with the aspirations of the Primary and Community Strategy. She has become an inspiration to the whole sector in terms of clinically led service redesign and patient centred care.

Congratulations to Jo Mitchell (Dunedin) – Specialist Rheumatology

• This joint winner has shown outstanding leadership and dedication in the development of the Southland Hospital Campus as a campus of Otago University. He works tirelessly to foster clinical, academic and research partnerships between Southland Hospital and the University of Otago and is the epitome of breaking boundaries by working and sharing resources with the university. He also fosters and mentors talent, innovation and the sharing of knowledge with the Southland public through his series of free public lectures.

Congratulations to Konrad Richter (Southland) – Clinical Associate Professor, General Surgery

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‘Team of the Year’

This award is for a team that has demonstrated their ability to deliver clear benefits through working together effectively and efficiently. The definition of a team, in this context, is two or more members of DHB staff sharing the same goals, in either their day-to-day work or on a particular project or task.

These winners are the team that came together from various services and background and were quickly part of our unprecedented and rapid public health response to COVID-19. This was a true multi-disciplinary team with everyone playing a key role from data analysis, administration, contact tracing, providing public health staff at our borders and public health advice for the District.

This was an amazing team effort and everyone had at the front of their mind how important the work was in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our district.

The scale and pace of this response was unprecedented. Most of the 216 cases and their contacts were contacted within a two week period. Systems had to be put in place extremely quickly and were constantly revised.  The team showed amazing resilience and professionalism.

Congratulations to Public Health COVID-19 Response Team (District)

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‘Graham Crombie Outstanding Leadership Award’

Paying homage to the late Deputy Commissioner Graham Crombie – an exceptional individual and leader who made a phenomenal contribution to the DHB – this award recognises an individual, team or volunteer who demonstrate outstanding leadership, including mentoring, supporting and enabling the development of people and services – inspiring and motivating others to be the best they can be.

The winner in this category is an outstanding Public Health Physician and has worked tirelessly over the last 12 months to provide Public Health leadership over what has been a challenging time. Her leadership has been instrumental in ensuring that significant outbreaks in the Southern district, including Measles in 2019 and COVID-19 in 2020, have be able to be contained and not escalated to a point of widespread, uncontrolled community outbreaks.

She takes an evidence based approach and continues to provide clear direction and guidance. Her leadership has driven and inspired the team to work to a high standard during a rapidly evolving situation.  She is a role model to the team and works with them in a way that supports staff to grow in their knowledge and practice.

Congratulations to Susan Jack (District) – Medical Officer of Health, Southern.

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‘Māori Health Development’ 

This award recognises the achievements of any Southern DHB individual or team who have made a real contribution to improving the outcomes of Māori health and wellbeing.

The winner of this category provides strong leadership, mentorship, cultural advice and support to the Māori Mental Health teams, particularly Te Oranga Tonu Tanga, within his work with the Mental Health Addictions and Intellectual Disability directorate services and a positive influence with the wider mental health sector. He is recognised as an influential leader in Te Ao Māori and tikanga and practices within the SDHB values and behaviours of Manaakitanga, pono, whaiwhakaaro and whanaungatanga, a clear understanding of the spiritual, physical, mental and whanau health and wellbeing needs of Māori. He provides a whanau-centred approach in decision making and when progressing change to improve inequities and health outcomes.

Congratulations to Mautai Dunlop (Dunedin) - Māori Health Worker, Māori Mental Health

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‘Outstanding Care and Compassion’ 

This award is for an individual or team who goes the extra mile to ensure their service is caring and compassionate, and makes a difference to the lives of patients, service users and carers.

The winner of this category is a colorectal nurse specialist and works tirelessly to look after her patients as they negotiate the difficult pathway of colon cancer. She is always cheerful, kind, compassionate and goes above and beyond for every patient she cares for. She makes the time to meet with the patients when a surgeon is "breaking the news" of their cancer diagnosis, providing them with support immediately after the consultation. An innovator, she has set up a "colorectal whiteboard" that has revolutionised the tracking of patients through the department, ensuring they get timely tests and treatment.

Congratulations to Kim Snoep (Southland) Clinical Nurse Specialist - Colorectal

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‘Rising Star’

This award recognises the achievements of an individual who has been in their role less than two years, who goes above and beyond to help the DHB deliver its objectives and strives to exceed in all that they do. This individual will show an exceptional level of skill, initiative and commitment to their role.

The winner of this category joined the organisation as a new graduate in the Human Resources Team in May 2019. Her professional and personal growth in the last 18 months has been outstanding, while her intelligence, communication skills and confidence that are exceptional for a new graduate in a complex health environment. Highly committed, she is always at her desk at 7.30 in morning and learns as much as she can from every situation. She listens, learns, takes advice, reflects, and then provides meaningful suggestions. A deserving winner, she has a great career ahead of her.

Congratulations to Claudia Hutton (Dunedin) – HR Consultant, Human Resources

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‘Southern Future Values Champion’

This award is for an individual or team who have incorporated the Southern DHB values and behaviours into their everyday work environment.

This winner of this category is a tireless advocate for the health and well-being of the older people in our community. She is always seeking the best outcomes through excellence and quality improvement. Every interaction she has, whether they are staff, providers, consumers or their family, is about putting the person first. She treats people with kindness and respect at all times, she communicates extremely well and actively listens.

Our winner has worked tirelessly over the years to foster relationships amongst the DHB and aged residential care providers.  A prime example of this positive culture she has fostered is how she engaged and activated the Aged Residential Care (ARC) sector during COVID. The relationships and respect she has developed over the years were valuable in bringing all the ARC providers together and establishing an ARC Leaders Forum. This forum succeeded because of the values and behaviours she has consistently demonstrated over a number of years.

Congratulations to Sharon Adler (Dunedin) Portfolio Manager, Community Services

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‘Southern Innovation Challenge’

This award is for an individual or team who are currently working on introducing a new device, method or material to improve our health services for patients and staff.

The winner of this category is a pioneer in the field of teleophthalmology - revolutionising the way patients can be treated from the comfort of their own home. He co-founded oDocs in 2014 – a social enterprise start-up helping optometrists identify eye damage and restore eyesight to the blind with smartphones. Now, he’s using this innovation to empower his patients and their families. The goal of teleophthalmology is to bring equity to eye care in addition to saving time and reduce the need to travel – reducing stress and prioritising patient wellbeing.

Congratulations to Hong Sheng Chiong (Dunedin) – Registrar Opthamology