Ten years of Clinical Care Standards
We’ve celebrated 10 years of Clinical Care Standards in Australia. Hear from five health services recognised with Clinical Care Standards Excellence Awards, view their stories of excellence and key learnings.
A celebration of Clinical Care Standards
November 2024 marked the 10th anniversary of Clinical Care Standards in Australia.
To mark this milestone, health professionals were invited to share their experiences in successfully implementing our Clinical Care Standards and how they improved patient care.
Five Stories of Excellence webinar
Five health services from across Australia were recognised with 10th Anniversary Clinical Care Standards Excellence Awards. Hear their stories of how they engaged and collaborated across their health services, used data and audits to improve quality and embedded sustainable change to deliver better outcomes for patients.
Stories of Excellence
Our Stories of Excellence demonstrate significant improvements in patient care, the challenges experienced and the steps taken to overcome them.
These stories relay creativity, innovation and commitment to quality improvement from health professionals and provide an opportunity to learn.
Acute stroke care – University Hospital Geelong, Barwon Health, Victoria
Time is everything when it comes to stroke care. Realising they were not treating patients within the recommended timeframes, the Stroke Services team at University Hospital Geelong enacted an overhaul of the stroke pathway and staging real-time Code Stroke simulations.
Antimicrobial stewardship – Canberra Health Services, Canberra Hospital, Australian Capital Territory
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is essential to safeguard the effectiveness of antimicrobial medicines. Beyond annual point prevalence surveys, the Canberra Health Services AMS team decided they needed more detail, more often. After implementing monthly audits, the team could monitor the impact of new initiatives such as verifying antibiotic allergies and real-time prompts for guideline-recommended prescribing.
Colonoscopy – Northern NSW Local Health District, New South Wales
A short notice accreditation assessment found monitoring of clinical variation needed strengthening. Northern NSW Local Health District had 60 days to improve its monitoring and reporting processes, before the next follow-up assessment. They took stock and set about building a stronger, data-driven system that is supported by clinicians - starting with some innovative changes to their audit tool.
Opioid Analgesic Stewardship in Acute Pain – Austin Health Heidelberg, VIC
Communication gaps can arise when patients leave hospital and return to the care of their General Practitioner and may lead to patients using opioids for longer than intended. Austin Health integrated Opioid management plans (OMPs) into the workflow of their electronic medical records system and deployed user testing to emphasise the tool was here to help, not to hinder, and the data speaks for itself.
Sepsis – Flinders and Upper North Local Health Network, South Australia
Sepsis is a life threatening condition which needs prompt identification for appropriate management. The team at Flinders and Upper North Local Health Network led the way in designing a sepsis pathway tailored to local needs, across a large regional and remote area of South Australia. Initiatives to train new staff and a 'Sepsis Pharmacy Box' have helped to cement these changes. Dashboards convey the ongoing improvement from these changes in staff lounges and clinical spaces.
Background
Clinical Care Standards describe the care that people can expect to be offered for a specific clinical condition, treatment, procedure or clinical pathway, no matter where they are treated in Australia.
Evidence shows that Clinical Care Standards have had a significant impact on patient care. They are also helping to ensure we provide appropriate high-value care across our health system.
Timeline of our Clinical Care Standards
We’ve released 19 national Clinical Care Standards since 2014 and regularly reviews these standards, to ensure they align with the latest evidence.
| Release Date | Clinical Care Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | November | Antimicrobial Stewardship |
| December | Acute Coronary Syndromes | |
| 2015 | June | Acute Stroke |
| 2016 | July | Delirium |
| September | Hip Fracture | |
| 2017 | May | Osteoarthritis of the Knee |
| October | Heavy Menstrual Bleeding | |
| 2018 | September | Colonoscopy |
| October | Venous Thromboembolism Prevention | |
| 2019 | October | Acute Stroke (update) |
| 2020 | November | Antimicrobial Stewardship (update) |
| 2021 | April | Third and Fourth Degree Perineal Tears |
| May | Management of Peripheral Intravenous Catheters | |
| August | Cataract | |
| September | Delirium (update) | |
| November | Acute Anaphylaxis | |
| 2022 | April | Opioid Analgesic Stewardship in Acute Pain |
| June | Sepsis | |
| September | Low Back Pain | |
| November | Stillbirth | |
| 2023 | September | Hip Fracture (update) |
| 2024 | May | Psychotropic Medicines in Cognitive Impairment or Disability |
| June | Heavy Menstrual Bleeding (update) | |
| August | Osteoarthritis of the Knee (update) | |
| October | Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) | |
| 2025 | Colonoscopy (update) | |