Ten years after St Stephen’s Hospital opened in Hervey Bay, there’s a real sense of pride as Richard Royle reflects on the hospital’s accomplishments.
Richard was Group Executive of UnitingCare’s four hospitals including St Stephen’s Hospital from 2005 to 2015 and lead the project delivery team which established St Stephen’s Hospital in Hervey Bay – Australia’s first fully integrated digital hospital.
It was a move which would ultimately help to transform healthcare in the Fraser Coast region and lead the way in digital healthcare nationally.
Reflecting on the catalysts for change, Richard recalled the growth of St Stephen’s Hospital in Maryborough becoming static.
“At the time, Hervey Bay’s population was going through the roof and a number of doctors who we had working at St Stephen’s in Maryborough moved their practices to Hervey Bay. Our hospital was starting to suffer as a result with reduced business,” Richard said.
“We purchased a vacant block of land in Hervey Bay and built a day surgery centre that was opened in 2006, but business continued to be challenging in Maryborough.
“Ultimately we grasped the nettle and decided we would have to move down to Hervey Bay,” he said.
A significant moment for St Stephen’s came in 2012, when the Australian Government awarded the hospital a grant through the Health and Hospital’s Fund to help build Australia’s first digital hospital.
“We approached the Federal Health Minister to see whether there was any chance of getting some form of Government grant to establish a digital hospital, which was in essence a way for us to gain some additional funding to build the hospital,” Richard said.
“We put in a detailed submission under what was then a Federal Government grant for rural and remote health services, and we managed to win $47.1 million.
“That was the impetus for us to be able to proceed with the hospital development and so we went down the path of setting up the first truly fully integrated digital hospital in Australia,” he said.
Richard fondly remembers the team who delivered the Australian-first hospital project, on time and on budget.
“All of the team who worked on the project at the time have since dispersed but we remain a pretty close group because of what we achieved,” Richard said.
“Nowhere in the country had anything been done like this before, there was no Australian experience. We ended up developing a project team lead by Connie Harmson who became the Project Director for the IT implementation.
“Connie came over from Arizona in the United States where she had done a similar IT development in a similar sized hospital. And from memory we brought across another six or seven Americans who had the expertise we didn’t.
“What was memorable for us was how we developed the team which integrated the American expertise with the Australian desire to be successful.
“Many other hospital leaders said words to the effect of, why do you want to be another tomb stone in the cemetery of hospital CEOs who have attempted and failed in digital implementation?
“That riled me and I said I’ll make sure it works. Two years later it did work, and much to everyone’s amazement, the hospital was opened on time and on budget,” Richard said.
Richard said there were a few key triumphs which made the move a success and beneficial for the community it serves.
“The first triumph was that we were able to open a new private hospital, on a greenfield site, at a time when it was quite difficult to get hospitals to stack up. And for a not-for-profit operator to receive a government grant to assist with that,” Richard said.
“We worked incredibly closely with our doctors and involved them right from the start in the adaptation of the American software into an Australian product.
“And then of course, being able to retain so many of our staff who chose to move with the hospital Hervey Bay,” he said.
For patients, it’s meant being able to access more and more healthcare services close to home.
“The other bonus was that we had built a brand-new private hospital which was fully integrated with our hospitals in Brisbane, The Wesley Hospital and St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, from a digital perspective. So our doctors had a greater level of comfort in treating cases in Hervey Bay, that they otherwise would have had to transfer to Brisbane.
“Like cardiac care for example, because it meant that we could do live cardiac monitoring in Hervey Bay, looked over by the cardiologist in Brisbane, and that was a game changer.
“We started to attract more specialists to Hervey Bay and that was a real positive for the community. That was a quiet achievement that I don’t think a lot of people realised at the time,” he said.
Like many, Richard expects St Stephen’s Hospital will continue to grow in the future alongside it’s growing community and said its future-proofed to do so.
“As the hospital grows more specialists will come and provide a more comprehensive service, meaning fewer people will have to go down to Brisbane for their complex medical care,” Richard said.
“The good news is the growth has been built into the hospital design to cater for the population growth which will allow the hospital to do more and more on site in Hervey Bay and that can only be a positive for the community.”
Image: Sen John Hogg and Richard Royle at St Stephen's Hospital site blessing and sod turning ceremony in January 2013.