User Conference Speakers 2019

Baron Grant

Keynote Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer and Coach

Baron Grant is an outstanding and relatable Keynote Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer and Coach, who delivers keynote presentations and training sessions across Australia and Overseas. 

Baron’s easy going, yet motivational training style draws the audience in to his message, leaving a deep impression, allowing personal introspection. He has been referred to as the ‘Excuse Breaker’, helping his audience recognise that they are in the driver’s seat – they have control of the direction of their lives.  He has the rare ability to empower people to see that they have the capacity to achieve whatever they want. They are left with the impression to not wait and watch life go by, but instead - go out and get it!

In addition to his inspiring message of ‘acting in spite of life’s challenges’, Baron is an experienced trainer and facilitator, and frequently speaks on a range of topics.

Baron is also a Certified trainer for the TRACOM Group, with vast experience delivering the following programs: Social Style and Versatility, Adaptive Mindset for Resiliency, Adaptive Mindset for Agility and Behavioural EQ

Acting in spite of life's challenges

Baron is a regular guy who has had some significant, real life challenges that everybody can relate to.  His life went from charmed to challenged, and he shares what he learned in the process. Instead of admitting defeat as his new business suffered, his wife became deathly ill and his ability to provide for his family of five children became extremely strained, Baron learnt, and now shares how to dig deeper, exploring what actually makes life worth living.

Participants leave Baron’s sessions inspired to make massive change and achieve their dreams, regardless of what challenges they may be facing. Along with being inspired to do and be better, they leave with practical tools they can implement daily to ensure they not only dream about their goals, but actually go out and achieve them. They are inspired as well as empowered to go and take action.

Dr Jason Sutherland

Associate Professor, Center for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR)
University of British Columbia (UBC)

Dr Jason M. Sutherland is an Associate Professor in the Center for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) in the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Faculty of Medicine. He is also the Program Head, Health Services and Outcomes at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences in Vancouver, Canada. Dr Sutherland is currently a funded Scholar of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in British Columbia and has been Canada’s Harkness Fellow in Clinical Practice and Health Policy.

Abstract:

Improving value from hospital spending

In this presentation, Dr Sutherland will review Canadian ABF policy and impact on hospitals as well as the cost inputs and price-setting process for diagnosis related groups. He will then summarise outcomes of hospitals’ experiences with ABF and demonstrate system-level effects of ABF. Finally, Dr. Sutherland will discuss the future of ABF policies in Canada and how data will shape the speed of reforms.

Pierre Gagne

Clinical Consultant, PowerHealth Canada

Pierre is a Canadian physician, board certified in Nuclear Medicine in 1994; he completed a master in epidemiology at the Universite Laval in 2011.

Pierre works as a clinical consultant for PHS in Canada. He is a full Professor and is the Founding regional dean of the Mauricie regional medical campus at the Universite de Montreal. He is the former Chair of the Group on Regional Medical Campuses, a working group of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He was an invited professor at the Harvard Macy Institute for the Leadership in Medical Education and is an expert on regional medical campuses, being the author and co-author of numerous publications as well as many lectures given in Canada, the US, China and Tunisia.

He was awarded the Clinical Teacher of the Year award from the Quebec Medical Association in 2011.

Pierre is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Abstract:

Whether or not to use the accidents database - a Physician's perspective

The Quebec healthcare system (QHCS) is a predominantly public system overseeing 8.6 million people; private hospitals are almost non-existent. Physicians’ autonomy is important as they are for the most part autonomous workers; they are represented by powerful employee groups (unions) for the specialists and family physicians. These groups have a huge political lever inside the QHCS and any reform can be met with failure if physicians are not engaged appropriately.

In April 2017, PowerPerformance Manager (PPM) was chosen as the costing system to be implemented for the whole public QHCS, excluding the physicians’ fee for service remuneration and the publicly funded “family medicine groups”. One major challenge in this 44 M$ project was the potential reluctance of physicians to the production and disclosure of data allowing the assessment and comparison of clinical practices and outcomes within and between establishments.

To get the buy-in from clinicians and avoid the overused message of doing more with less, PHS chose not to focus on managerial goals, such as costs and gains in efficiency and performance. PHS rather emphasized the importance of clinical values such as continuous improvement in the quality of care and safety issues, resulting in a better access to care inside a system with limited resources. Another important premise was that physicians want the very best for their patients and, if provided with good data, will change their behaviour accordingly. Hence, PPM should be used as a powerful tool providing evidence-based data for peer reviewed discussions about best practice and relevancy. Ultimately, better efficiency, quality and better costs would be side-effects of good clinical values supported by evidence-based data. Involving and empowering physicians in the use of the PPM data will result in a common language to interact with the various management teams leading to lasting changes for the benefits of everyone.

As for safety issues, such as Incident/Accident data, whilst PHS has a long history of including this data, there was initial reluctance in including it for fear of disengaging people in reporting those events. However, following the request of a few influential individuals, the Incident/Accident data was included in PPM, processed and analysed.

Whilst accepting that there are various contributing factors that impact on the cost of patient care, such as Age, Gravity and Length of Stay, review of the processed Incident/Accident data indicated that the cost of episodes with Incident/Accident for a given DRG was up to three times higher than an episode without such an event for the same DRG in the same organisation. As a result, this information should be used to engage with clinicians, as the presence of Incident/Accident may explain for 'efficiency gaps' among physicians, whether or not they are related to their practices.

Through this presentation, we will share our experience and the key lessons learned from our approach of engaging with clinicians to deliver real and lasting change from the Incident/Accident data.

Simon Friend

Senior Solutions Architect, Soul Machines & 'Lia'

Simon Friend is a 20-year veteran of the IT industry. He is an accomplished analytical thinker, with expertise in artificial intelligence, solution design, and technological innovations across a broad range of industries.

Simon is currently Senior Solution Architecture for Soul Machines, a ground-breaking high-tech company of AI researchers, neuroscientists, psychologists, artists and innovative thinkers who are re-imagining how we connect with machines.

Abstract:

Creating the world's most human digital beings

Soul Machines is a deep science and technology company fusing AI, computational brain models and experiential learning to usher in a new era of Human Experience across any digital platform or interface.

In this presentation Simon will share how his team are first applying innovations to redefine customer and brand experience through digital interfaces and applications, ranging from service and support to sales and product. In the process, they've created the world’s most human digital beings.

Mr Daniel Moon

Urologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Epworth Healthcare & Cabrini Hospital

Dr Daniel Moon is a urologist with particular expertise in minimally invasive and robotic surgery. He served as the inaugural Director of Robotic Surgery at Epworth Healthcare 2012-2017 and is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at The University of Melbourne and Monash University. He has performed over 1500 major laparoscopic +/- robotic procedures, published the first Australian series of laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in 2008, performed the first Australian robotic cysto-prostatectomy in 2009, and established a robotic partial nephrectomy program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, publishing the first Australian series of this procedure in 2014 and the largest Australian partial nephrectomy series in 2017. Dr Moon has developed comprehensive training and credentialing documents for surgeons learning robotics, has received European Association of Urology certification as a trainer in robotic surgery and is on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Urology International.

Abstract:

Robotic surgery in Australia: developing a new gold standard

Since the introduction of robotic surgery in Melbourne in 2003, this technology has revolutionized keyhole or laparoscopic surgery in a growing number of disciplines. In areas such as prostate and kidney cancer, robotics is rapidly becoming the gold standard for surgical treatment. Offering three dimensional, high definition vision, finely controlled wristed instruments, unsurpassed access and ergonomics for the surgeon, and incorporation of imaging and vascular mapping this is a highly attractive approach for both surgeon and patient.
But many questions have needed answering and remain contentious: Which procedures should be performed in this manner? Can we demonstrate a difference in outcomes sufficient to justify the increased expenditure by insurance companies and healthcare providers? How do we ensure all patients can be offered access to robotics regardless of geographical and socio-economic factors? How do we adequately train and monitor surgeons in such a rapidly growing new technology? Do the principles of surgical training need to be re-evaluated in light of the changing techniques and future developments with multiple new platforms to be introduced in coming years?

Shane King

Senior Consultant, Loftus

Over the last 25 years Shane King has worked in the UK, Sydney and Adelaide for the Ministry of Defence as well as world class vendors such as HP, 3PAR and NetApp as a backup/data protection consultant. Clients have included the UK Prime Minister’s Office, Government security agencies as well as a diverse range of enterprises in the banking and commercial sector.

Shane currently works as a senior consultant for Loftus, an Adelaide-based IT Service provider that will be celebrating 25 years serving well-known local companies such as Beerenberg, Weber BBQ and Benson Radiology. Shane is responsible for the Loftus Security Awareness training programme for local companies to reduce the chance of becoming victims of cybercrime. Shane is also a semi-professional magician but has promised not to make your data disappear!

Abstract:

The magic of cyber security

All companies these days need to have strategies in place for when - not if - they encounter a data breach. This is even more critical for the healthcare industry where personal and sensitive patient information can be compromised. Discover how one of the biggest data breaches ever to occur in Australia affected the Red Cross but more importantly, learn how they acted appropriately and in a timely manner to rectify the data breach.

Shane King will explain how their response to the data breach provides a model of good practice for other organisations. Shane will then provide some simple and practical steps that can help mitigate a security breach in your organisation. The most secure companies can still be compromised by their unwitting employees who are duped by ever increasingly sophisticated phishing emails. They can be lured into clicking on a link or opening an attachment that can wreak havoc within your IT systems and Shane will help provide some tips and tricks to identify when an email is real or not. He may even share a magic trick with you!

Frank Smolenaers

Director of Technology, Australian Centre for Health Innovation

Frank Smolenaers has extensive Public Health experience (over 38 years) initially as a Medical Laboratory Scientist & Lab Manager, then as a Health IT Engineer, consultant and CTO for the last 21 years. In his role as the Director of Technology at the Australian Centre for Health Innovation, he advises on the technology components of health research and operates a simulated Digital Health Design Laboratory for eHealth solution development and End User Experience and testing.

Frank is an Honorary Research Fellow and Sessional Lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre (HaBIC).

Due to his extensive contribution to improving healthcare delivery by the appropriate use of technology, Frank is also an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University’s Central Clinical School.

Abstract:

Alfred Health's Wayfinding Solution Evolves

The benefits of good wayfinding are numerous, and result in a better experience for everyone.  Visitors are empowered to help themselves, thereby reducing the stress and anxiety associated with unfamiliar surroundings, while volunteers and staff experience fewer interruptions and spend less time directing people.

Good wayfinding improves the patient and visitor experience by enabling the easy and timely location of clinics and other conveniences such as the nearest rest rooms, cafeteria and car parks. The outcomes of these benefits are, less complaints, fewer missed appointments and reduced operational inefficiencies.

Recognising that mobile wayfinding is fast becoming a useful adjunct for improving patient experience, Alfred Health, in conjunction with PowerHealth, developed a navigation application for smartphones. The ‘PowerNav’ smart phone app uses indoor location and movement tracking, enabled by low energy Bluetooth beacons (BLE) mounted on the ceiling of hospital corridors. No IT infrastructure is required. 

In this session Frank will outline the process and learnings from PowerNav's evolution, which now includes outpatient appointment integration, improved end-user experience and some coal face experiences.

Scott McConnel

Executive Director for Finance & Performance, Wide Bay HHS

Scott is a qualified accountant and senior executive with more than 20 years’ experience across a diverse range of industries in the private and public sectors, both in Australia and internationally. He has a strong track record of leading continuous improvement and driving change, and in strategic planning for sustainability.

Scott completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree with first-class honours in 1994 and was accepted into the prestigious BHP Billiton four-year graduate program, before spending seven years working in London’s financial services industry at director level.

He joined Queensland Health in 2011 as Chief Finance Officer at Darling Downs HHS, leading a $40 million turnaround from deficit to surplus in the transition from a Health Service District to an HHS. He has been WBHHS Executive Director for Finance and Performance since December 2015, similarly, leading a $25m turnaround.

Scott was recognised by his team, peers and customers winning the prestigious 2018 HFMA Finance Leader of the Year award.

Scott is a Fellow of Certified Practicing Accountants Australia and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Abstract:

Wide Bay's Sustainable Turnaround

From one of the worst performing services in Queensland to one of the best, Wide Bay HHS has been able to deliver the triple bottom line in access, quality and finance. Scott McConnel presents on how this has been achieved and the culture change required to sustain it.

Christine Fan

Sydney Children's Hospital Network (SCHN)

EMR data - the next chapter in digital healthcare

Although a little late to the party, digital transformation is now sweeping health with the promise of safer and smarter ways to care for patients. This transformation is a key contributor to the explosion of health data. Data volumes are doubling annually, and that is on conservative estimates! The challenge to health workers is in leveraging the best opportunities for improvement within the current landscape.

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network (SCHN) has been exploring the following data considerations:

• Aligning digital change with strategic vision to build an information enabled future.

• Empowering patient-centred care through data.

• Liberating the electonic medical record (EMR) system and the people who use it, to better inform service delivery through predictive analytics.

SCHN envisage integrated data solutions that are mobile, and guide decision making with alerts to critical issues requiring attention. There is a requirement for solutions to be compatible to personal devices and to provide information 24/7, not just to staff but to patients as well.

SCHN is delighted to share how its sees the EMR data story as the next chapter in Healthcare. Don’t miss it, it’s sure to be a real page-turner!

Stephen Cole

Gold Coast Hospital & Health Service

Pond life - interesting phenomena in an Activity Based Costing data pond

Hidden within the detail that is a normal health service activity based costing data pond is a wealth of interesting and curious phenomena that anyone armed with just a standard spreadsheet and a working knowledge of SQL can highlight.

From the intricate interplay of costs and timings available from our theatre system, and their fractal-like symmetry with the spread of costs across the entire patient stay, to the simple transformation of bucket costs to allow case-mix adjusted component costs per WAU for benchmarking and efficiency purposes – these can all be done with limited resources and simple techniques.

Using MS Excel and some basic SQL, we can visualise quite intricate relationships without needing to resort to more sophisticated methods. Whether it’s demonstrating the inverse relationship between numbers of encounters and costs, to tracking trends in the Diagnosis Complexity Levels for a DRG, this is all information that can be retrieved and visualised from your Activity Based Costing system database.

Techniques and transformational methods that facilitate the analysis of information within the Activity Based Costing data will be described, using real world examples. These are intended to encourage the consideration of different perspectives and ways to represent the information.

Dean Athan

Clinical Costing Consultant, Peninsula Health

Addressing the Clinical Costing Credibility Gap

Modelling Clinical Costing data is complex and often not well understood by Hospital Executives. Further complications arise when costing data highlights unfavourable performance for key hospital services, resulting in Clinical Service Heads and Senior Executives disregarding and undermining the validity of the information. Rather than seeking to understand the opportunities for more effective service delivery inherently revealed by the figures, the costing data is often not believed or understood and its validity is discredited.

Peninsula Health is a newly implemented PPM Hospital having gone live with the system in early 2017. Following successful implementation of PPM and submission to the annual Victorian Cost Data Collection (VCDC), initial feedback from the Department of Human Services with regard to the quality of the costing data was good. However, within Peninsula Health a significant credibility gap needed to be addressed before the costing data would be seriously considered and trusted for decision making.

Discussions with other mature costing hospitals revealed that the same credibility gap often exists in Health Services. For Peninsula Health some simple but key approaches were used to support the validation and usefulness of the data for decision makers. These included the use of cost benchmark data and traditional cost accounting measures, which are rarely or never used in hospitals. As a result the costing data was perceived to be reliable, resulting in significant buy-in from executive level decision makers. The impact of this information led to support for increasing clinical staffing resources for a key clinical service, and a significant planned re-development of facilities to further expand the provision of this clinical service area.

May Lissa Ollivier

Costing Consultant, PowerHealth Canada

Navigating the blurry waters of defining costing methodology amidst a major healthcare system overhaul in the province of Quebec (Canada)

The Quebec public healthcare system has seen considerable changes in the past few years. Firstly, in 2014, an Expert group mandated by the Ministry of Health (MSSS) published a report recommending a change in paradigm from historical funding to activity-based funding (ABF) which resulted in MSSS adding a strategic axis regarding ABF in their 2015-2020 strategic plan. Secondly, a law was adopted in 2015 which resulted in the merger of 182 pubic healthcare organisations into 34 “mega-establishments” with expenditures ranging from 400M$ to 1.3B$ which further warranted the need for ABF. Thirdly, the Cost per Clinical Care Pathway Project (CPSS) was launched in 2016 and PPM was selected as the costing solution in 2017. Finally, that same year, two other major projects were launched: the creation of a unified healthcare chart of accounts and the implementation of a unified medical record number across Quebec.

Although many other countries are well advanced in healthcare costing, the use of benchmark methodologies is not possible across Quebec because the service provision model is different and not all establishments have the same source systems, data definitions or available data. A methodology committee comprised of representatives from the MSSS, PHS, the CDO (entity responsible for the continuance of the project after the implementation) and select establishments met biweekly for nearly 2 years to discuss and approve the methodology to be applied provincially. A subcommittee also discussed any methodology issues arising during implementations. Raising issues to this subcommittee was a chance for establishments to question the methodology and propose alternatives supported by concrete data demonstrations using the costing results.

This presentation will focus on how the costing methodology was developed and structured in Quebec, the issues that arose and how it evolved based on recommendations from establishments who were responsible for its application and finally we have a look at some of the initial benchmarking information that is coming out of the project.

Stephen Cole & Amanda Frankham

Gold Coast Hospital & Health Service & PowerHealth Costing Consultant

How I learned to stop worrying and love the revenue model; how Gold Coast uses the revenue model in PPM

Whilst Power Performance Manager is primarily used for costing, it is also a powerful tool for calculating your ABF revenue in a timely manner. This is beneficial in two ways: it allows you to determine the profit and loss associated with your activity, but also allows you to identify and manage risk factors inherent in the revenue model.

Using a rules-based engine called Idiom, the revenue model is constructed using a visual design methodology, which then produces an executable java file. This is loaded into PPM as a rule set, which can then be run using the Execute Rules option.

Once the ABF revenue is built, it can be easily extracted and compared with cost, allowing analysis of profit and loss across all activity types within the health service. This can then be used to identify priorities for efficiency improvement, which helps improve throughput and lower costs.

André Loiselle

Senior Data Architecture Advisor, PowerHealth Canada

Driving better data through Province-wide integration

The Quebec public healthcare system oversees 8.6M people with almost no private healthcare to relieve the burden on the public system. The adoption of Bill No. 10 brought about significant changes to the organisational structure and governance of the health and social services network, and as a result, 131 establishments became 34.

This decentralised approach, under which Quebec operated for many years, translates into the current use of at least 200 different systems across the province, each with different fields, values and definitions, validation and management rules. Furthermore, the data historically remained with the vendors of these systems, allowing government users restricted or limited access to their own data.

In 2016, the Cost per Clinical Care Pathway Project (CPSS) was launched, and in 2017 PPM was selected as the provincial costing solution for all of Quebec. One of the main challenges faced by this province-wide project, was to bring all this disparate data into the PPM costing system while ensuring it was standardised, normalised and of course, timely.

In this presentation, André shares the methodology employed, the obstacles overcome, and the positive outcomes that were achieved during the transformation of the Quebec healthcare establishments' information systems.

Richard Morrall

Freelance Healthcare Project Manager/Business Analyst

Implementation of outpatient claiming solution using PBRC batch entry forms

In early 2018 SA Health went live with a new outpatient claiming solution using PBRC’s batch entry functionality.

SA Health’s existing outpatient claiming systems were end-of-life and about to be discontinued. SA Health needed an outpatient claiming solution to replace the functionality of the existing legacy systems. Using PBRC, they were able to meet their requirements, and get the benefits of a solution that integrated to their financial system as well as helping with data quality. The completed solution was rolled out across more than 70 clinics in a mix of public hospitals and community health centres. 

This presentation will look at the technical and design challenges using new functionality to address a business need. Some of the challenges addressed included:

• Building the functionality into an existing configuration designed for pathology claiming, including changing the existing organisation structure in PBRC

• Designing the user process flow to best align to the existing user experience 

• Including data validation at time of data entry, and completely avoiding using work list items

Marina Hocking

Project Manager - Eastern Health

Proactive Project Management (but remember it is only 8% of revenue)

Marina follows the journey of Eastern Health from 2017 to present day as the organisation embarks on delivery of PBRC as its Enterprise Wide Billing Solution for Patient Account billing.

Eastern Health approached this journey from a starting concept of addressing the need to replace the billing capability previously performed in HOMER, alongside a HOMER replacement project, to setting up a three-year business transformation project, consolidating 17 legacy billing applications into PBRC.

The project leveraged typical project management methods but with a Lean/Six Sigma business focus. The PBRC implementation perspective came from a desire to understand what the business does TODAY; what improvements it was seeking to achieve, and how it wanted PBRC to operate to support its FUTURE vision and processes.

The guiding principal requested by the project sponsor was to deliver a solution that makes it easy for doctors and clinicians, as well as patients, and with a Patient First value. At the same time, the sponsor prompted the team to, "remember, it is only 8% of total revenue". This gave rise to a very practical work focus, reminding the team that, whilst the project was important, it was not the highest priority for an organisation focused on “delivering great care everywhere every time”.

In this presentation, Marina will also provide the Project Manager's perspective of trying to achieve these objectives with no previous health knowledge or experience, other than through a patient lens. She will share some of the challenges and lessons learnt, as well as successes achieved over the past 18 months.

Stephen Waller

Consultant Health Revenue Systems/Performance, Monash

Revenue distribution: splitting the Golden Egg 

Are you splitting hairs over revenue distribution granularity? 

Revenue Distribution is a new method of effectively determining correct portion allotment (splits) for revenue prior to extracting to the GL.

Steve will coach you through logical real-life examples and draw on factual cases from two sites currently using the tool, albeit in very different scenarios with very different outcomes. This presentation will highlight and explain the specific tools needed to perform the revenue splits, as well as covering how you will also be able to apply the PBRC concept to your specific accounting model. You will walk away from this presentation with new ideas to effectively slice and dice revenue to the right levels.