Why a National Safety and Quality Framework?
The Australian Health Ministers' Conference tasked the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) with developing a National Safety and Quality Framework.What is the Framework?
Australia's first National Safety and Quality Framework (the Framework) describes a vision and direction to improve the safety and quality of health care in the Australian health system. It sets out twenty two actions that will help health care providers and organisations, in all health care settings, plan for and provide safe, high quality care to patients, families and carers.The Framework's vision is that safe, high-quality care is always:
- Patient Focused
- Driven by information
- Organised for safety
The proposed National Safety and Quality Framework was the subject of a consultation process in 2009. The final National Safety and Quality Framework will be available on this website after it has been endorsed by Australian Health Ministers' Conference at the end of 2010.
Who can use the Framework?
The Framework can be used by primary, community, and acute health care providers and managers, consumers, and other organisations and governments that improve, regulate, build evidence about, or advocate for safety and quality in health care.How can I use the Framework?
You should use the Framework in a way that suits your needs and circumstances. Some suggestions for you to consider are proposed below. The Framework could be used:- as the basis of your strategic and operational safety and quality plans;
- to refocus your current quality improvement activities;
- to review the investments you have made to assure and improve safety and quality;
- to design goals for health service improvement;
- to give an overview of some of the core concepts in the safety and quality discipline; and
- to promote discussion with consumers, clinicians, managers, researchers and policy makers about how they might best contribute to safety and quality improvement.
The Commission will provide guidance and support on various aspects of the Framework, which will be developed through its existing and new work programs. We recommend visiting the relevant areas of our website to access content and tools produced by our programs.
To support the use of the Framework, guides will also be developed that contain activities for health service and clinical managers, health care professionals and support staff, and for people who work in governance and policy development roles. The guides will be released and available on this website at the end of 2010.
How was the Framework developed?
A proposed Framework was developed in 2009 following consultation with consumer organisations, jurisdictions, the private healthcare sector, the primary care sector and other healthcare stakeholders. This proposed Framework was then subject to wide consultation with stakeholder between July and October 2009. The report on the consultation process on the proposed National Safety and Quality Framework contains summaries of the processes used throughout the consultation process and the feedback received. Copies of the written submissions can be found on the Proposed National Safety and Quality Framework - Written Submissions page. The final Framework has taken feedback from the consultation process into account.Contact
Emily Davis
Project Officer
(02) 9263 3794
mail@safetyandquality.gov.au
