Christy Milella has been VAHI’s Corporate and Operations Director for the last 18 months. In this profile she talks about how her area supports VAHI to be Victoria’s leading data agency.
Before coming to VAHI
I was at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for a couple of years, but the majority of my career has been in hospitals, in hospital operations, so coming to VAHI was like coming full circle.
I worked in private hospitals in Victoria, doing all the operational stuff that you would normally find in hospitals, so theatre efficiency, asset utilisation, HR, and finance mostly. I was also on quality and safety committees, representing the operational aspects. Some people would probably find it boring, but I love it.
I really love it because it's the unsung value that enables clinicians to do the things that they need to do. Corporate operations should enable them to do what they need to do and that's really the measure of good operations, is that those things don't hold you down. They set you free and allow you to do the things that you need to get done.
How Corporate and Operations enables success at VAHI
A key recent example is the work we’ve been doing to develop our stakeholder engagement strategy, which includes developing a range of tools to support VAHI staff in how and when to engage our stakeholders. Developing the frameworks and putting the guidance around how we operate and how we do things is really important, because it's like a roadmap for where we need to go and other people don't have to think about that.
So when VAHI staff want to engage with people, we can look at the policies, the frameworks and tools that have been set up for us, which allow us to do the things we need to do without starting from the very beginning each time.
If we want to, for example, issue a report, we've got branding guidelines, we've got a whole lot of policies and frameworks that support what we want to do that have not only been developed but have also been improved with each iteration as well.
It makes for a smooth process. It's the foundation that allows us to do the important work we deliver as an organisation.
Favourite thing about working in Corporate and Operations at VAHI
It's the satisfaction knowing that we have a small role in every part of the organisation. Every small win that we have across the organisation, we know that we've been involved is some way. We've either assisted the recruitment or the onboarding of people who bring their expertise; we've navigated the branding; or the engagement; or we've helped ensure that effective governance supports project delivery. It's just that satisfaction that you get from knowing that everything that happens somehow, somewhere, at some stage comes through Corporate and Operations.
Key upcoming work
With VAHI now incorporated into the Department of Health it opens a range of opportunities. Linked data capability is now in VAHI with the Centre for Victorian Data Linkage because of the understanding that we can leverage this value.
We previously focused on our mandate from the Targeting zero review, and we have been able to demonstrate the value of data in improving quality and safety and informing decision making. The value of data has been evident, our scope is increasing now and we're able to add value in other areas where we have not been before. That’s exciting! We did well and now we can do more and better.
You can get in touch with Christy via [email protected]