Open Disclosure Standard
The essential elements of open disclosure are outlined in The National Open Disclosure Standard (PDF 495 KB). The standard was developed by the former Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care and endorsed by the Health Ministers in July 2003.Open Disclosure Pilot
The National Open Disclosure Standard was piloted in 40 facilities in 7 jurisdictions and the private sector. An external evaluation of the pilot, completed in late 2007, demonstrated that the Open Disclosure Standard is robust, practicable and of value to health care practitioners and consumers.The Evaluation of the pilot of the National Open Disclosure Standard is now available for viewing or download.
An article about the pilot of the National Open Disclosure Standard was published in the Medical Journal of Australia on 7 April 2008 (registration required).
Open Disclosure Literature Review
The open disclosure literature review (PDF 187 KB) provides an overview of recent Australian and international publications on open disclosure. It includes summaries of articles from the legal, ethics and communications literature, as well as analysis of empirical studies and policy documents on open disclosure.Supporting Open Disclosure
In April 2008, Health Ministers agreed to work towards the implementation of the National Open Disclosure Standard in all health care facilities. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care will support jurisdictions and facilities to implement the standard by:- Maximising the value of the external evaluation of the national pilot by using it to develop practical guidance about open disclosure and related processes, in the form of fact sheets for staff and a guide for patients, carers and families;
- Obtaining expert advice on overcoming legal barriers to open disclosure by finding legal solutions that will enable health services to fully investigate adverse events, to share information with patients about what went wrong and to provide clinicians with surety;
- Collecting and studying the experiences of one hundred Australian patients with open disclosure to develop patient centred indicators of open disclosure; and
- Developing a full implementation guide to assist health care facilities and clinicians to implement the standard. This will be informed by external evaluation of the pilot, the legal advice and the one hundred patient stories; and
- Conducting ongoing monitoring of the effectiveness of implementation of the standard and reporting on this to Health Ministers at the end of 2009.
Contacts
Dr Christine Jorm,Senior Medical Advisor
(02) 9263 3774
Imogen Curtis
(02) 9263 3565
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