The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards Guide for hospitals has been developed to assist health service organisations to align their patient safety and quality improvement programs using the framework of the NSQHS Standards.

For each standard, this guide contains:

The purpose of this use guide is intended to support:

• Implementation of the NSQHS Standards in all healthcare settings where the standards apply.
• Services which are not specialist mental health services.
• Members of the workforce when they are providing health services to people with existing or emerging mental health issues.

Everyone can play a part in addressing health literacy. Of particular importance for people and organisations working in the health sector is the responsibility they have to ensure that the health literacy environment makes it as easy as possible for consumers, patients, families and carers to access, understand, appraise and apply information to make effective decisions about health and health care and take appropriate actions.