Accreditation

Australian Health Ministers endorsed the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards in September 2011.

The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards are considered essential to improving the safety and quality of care for patients. They provide a clear statement about the level of care consumers can expect from health services.

Accreditation promotes safe patient care and continuous quality improvement of health service organisations through a process of regular assessment and review. Accreditation against the NSQHS Standards will provide a public marker of safe and good quality care.

An Australian Health Service Safety and Quality Accreditation (AHSSQA) Scheme will build on the strengths of the current accreditation arrangements to promote national coordination of accreditation processes. This will enable improvements to be applied more broadly across health service organisations.

Under the new arrangements, health services such as hospitals and day surgeries will be accredited against the NSQHS Standards. Other health services may choose to use the NSQHS Standards as part of their internal quality systems.

During the transitional phase, the Commission will work with health services as they progressively start to implement the NSQHS Standards, in line with their existing accreditation arrangements. Health services will be able to choose to be accredited under their current system or under a system using the NSQHS Standards.

It is anticipated that full implementation of the NSQHS Standards will commence from 1 January 2013.

The Commission has developed a set of draft guides and tools to support health services implement the NSQHS Standards. These guides are available for public consultation and are currently being piloted in health services.

This web page will continue to be updated throughout the transition period. Information on the following topics will be progressively updated as implementation continues:

• Approved Accrediting Agencies
• NSQHS Standards
• AHSSQA Scheme
• Draft Guides for health services
• Consultation on the draft guides for health services
• Piloting of the draft guides for health services
• NSQHS Standards Fact Sheets
• Accreditation Frequently Asked Questions
• Development of the NSQHS Standards and Model National Accreditation Scheme
• Publications and Research