Better Care Everywhere initiative
The Better Care Everywhere initiative is how we support the health system to reduce unnecessary and low‑value care. It provides evidence‑based direction on what appropriate care looks like and supports health service organisations and clinicians to take practical action to reduce low‑value care and unwarranted clinical variation, helping to improve outcomes for patients and build a safer, more equitable and sustainable health system.
Why address unwarranted clinical variation
Unwarranted clinical variation can be due to low-value care. Low-value care happens when a test, treatment or procedure provides little or no benefit, or when the risks are greater than the benefit.
Low-value care can lead to:
- potentially harmful care
- the misuse of limited resources
- unnecessary environmental impacts
- increased burden and stress on patients and clinicians.
By reducing low-value care and providing care that is high-quality and evidenced-based, we can deliver a more sustainable healthcare system with:
- better patient experiences and outcomes
- better support for clinicians
- better use of time and resources.
Low-value care happens for varied reasons, such as embedded practices, system influences, clinical knowledge gaps and patient expectations. Reducing low-value care requires a co-ordinated, system-wide approach.
Better Care Everywhere Toolkit
Achieve better care, everywhere through six evidence-based strategies, practical tools and resources to reduce unwarranted clinical variation.
Use the Better Care Everywhere Toolkit to strengthen clinical governance systems, use data to identify where care varies, embed evidence-based best practice, support shared decision-making, measure what matters and connect with other health professionals to share what works.
Focus on one strategy to start, or use all six to deliver safer, more consistent and more equitable care.
How to use the Toolkit
Depending on your needs, you can:
- Find stand-alone resources in one central location.
- Use the six-step framework to help understand and address the drivers of unwarranted clinical variation.
- Explore the Topic Toolkits for specific clinical areas, including:
Who is the Toolkit for?
Clinicians, clinical governance leaders, quality improvement teams, health service organisations, clinical educators and anyone working to reduce unwarranted clinical variation.
How were the tools chosen?
Each tool was selected based on how useful it is for identifying and reducing unwarranted clinical variation and support better practice.
Tools include:
- Frameworks
- Clinical guidance
- Data reports
- Clinician resources
- Patient resources
- Learning modules
- Webinars
The Toolkit is designed to help you take practical steps toward better care, everywhere.
Better systems
Better systems
Better systems means having the right culture, systems and processes to deliver consistently high-quality and improving care.
How do better systems address unwarranted clinical variation?
- Provide the right environment for clear, system-wide approaches.
- Ensure everyone knows what best-practice looks like and that systems are set up to measure when care varies from best practice.
- Support staff to act when care varies more than it should or for the wrong reasons.
Guidance, tools, and resources
National Model for Clinical Governance
- Use to: Build strong systems to identify and act to address unwarranted clinical variation.
- Useful for: Health service boards, executives and leadership teams
- Use to: Set the standard and expectations for safe, high-quality care in acute services. Actions 1.27 and 1.28 require health service organisations to use evidence-based guidance and measure when care varies from this standard.
- Useful for: All professionals (health and non-health) involved in the delivery of acute care services.
Healthcare Sustainability and Resilience Module
- Use to: Support the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate and environmental risks. Action 2b includes reviewing clinical practice to identify and address healthcare variation and unnecessary use of resources.
- Useful for: Sustainability Managers, Safety and Quality Managers, Clinicians?
User Guide for Reviewing Clinical Variation
- Use to: Support reviews of clinical care processes to identify and address unwarranted clinical variation (variation (Action 1.28 of the NSQHS Standards).
- Useful for: Health services, Safety and Quality Managers, Clinicians
Better insights
Better insights
Better insights mean using data in meaningful ways to improve care and strengthen the health system.
How do better insights address unwarranted clinical variation?
- Routinely measure how care is being delivered to identify areas where care may differ from peers or a gold standard such as evidence-based guidelines.
- Combine data with local knowledge to guide decision making.
Guidance, tools, and resources
The Commission has developed a range of data resources to help the system identify and investigate healthcare variation. Each resource summarises the data, what it means and suggested actions.
Antimicrobial use and Resistance in Australia
- Use to: Understand where variation in antimicrobial use and resistance is occurring at a national and state level.
- Useful for: Clinicians, health service organisations, Primary Health Networks.
Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation
- Use to: Understand variation across a range of key health priorities at a national, state/territory, PHN and local area (SA3) level.
- Useful for: Primary Health Networks, Safety and Quality Managers, policy makers.
Hospital Acquired Complications list
- Use to: Appropriately identify and address high-priority complications in care
- Useful for: Health services, Safety and Quality Managers.
- Use to: Access insights on how health technologies, medicines and tests are used in your GP practice. These insights can inform quality improvement.
- Useful for: General Practitioners, GP Practice Managers.
- Use to: Reflect on clinical practice as part of self-reported CPD activity.
- Useful for: General Practitioners.
Better practice
Better practice
Better practice means providing care that is patient centred, safe, effective and evidence-based. This involves integrating evidence-based guidance, clinical expertise and reflective practice to provide high-quality care.
How does better practice address unwarranted clinical variation?
- Ensures care is delivered in line with evidence-based guidance.
- Consistently applies high-quality, best practice approaches no matter where the person is being treated.
- Informs appropriate care and reduces the delivery of unnecessary and low-value care.
Guidance, tools and resources
The Commission develops Clinical Care Standards to support the delivery of evidence-based care:
- Use to: Deliver high-quality, evidence-based and appropriate care in line with priorities for quality improvement.
- Useful for: Health service organisations, Clinicians, Safety and quality managers.
Better decisions
Better decisions
Better decisions mean making choices that are patient-centred and considers individual values, preferences and circumstances. It involves engaging in shared or supported decision-making, where clinicians, patients and their family or carers, work together to provide care that best meets the patient’s needs and goals.
How does better decision address unwarranted clinical variation?
- Ensure care delivered is effective and meaningful to the patient.
- Supports informed decision-making through improved understanding on treatment benefits, risks and alternatives.
- Reduce undesired and unnecessary interventions.
Guidance, tools, and resources
The Commission has developed resources to support shared decision-making between clinicians and patients.
- Use to: Help patients to ask the right questions and share the right information to make informed decisions.
- Useful for: Clinicians, patients, carers, family, support people health service organisations, consumer advocates.
Better monitoring
Better monitoring
Better monitoring means continually measuring and refining quality improvement activities to reduce unwarranted clinical variation.
How does better monitoring address unwarranted clinical variation?
- Establishes meaningful indicators to assess the effectiveness of quality improvement initiatives.
- Uses data to guide decision-making.
- Drives continuous improvement by tracking progress over time.
Guidance, tools, and resources
Clinical Care Standards indicators
- Use to: Support and monitor the implementation of clinical care standards.
- Useful for: Clinicians, Safety and Quality Managers, Practice Managers.
Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement (PROMs)
- Use to: Provide a structured way to capture patient-reported health outcomes.
- Useful for: Clinicians, Safety and Quality Managers, health service organisations, policy makers.
Patient-Reported Experience Measurement (PREMs)
- Use to: Capture events and experiences from the patient’s perspective.
- Useful for: Clinicians, Safety and Quality Managers, health service organisations, policy makers.
- Use to: Understand and measure the care being provided in acute care service settings.
- Useful for: Hospital Managers, Safety and Quality Managers, clinicians.
- Use to: Visually demonstrate geographic variation for health outcomes and conditions.
- Useful for: Clinicians, Safety and Quality Managers, health service organisations
Information on health care complaints
- Use to: Learn more about how to raise a concern about a health practitioner
- Useful for: Patients, family, carers and support people
Better networks
Better networks
Better networks mean bringing people together with common interests and goals to learn, share and support. Through these networks, clinicians can collaborate and apply shared learnings to promote stewardship of resources and reduce duplication of work.
How do better networks address unwarranted clinical variation?
- Provide a platform for sharing evidence, experiences and best practice.
- Support the standardisation of care to ensures patients receive consistent and high-quality care regardless of where they are being treated.
- Help reduce duplication across the system.