The Commission works to improve the safety and quality of medication use in Australia. It leads and coordinates national initiatives to reduce medication errors and harm from medicines. Medication safety forms part of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards (second edition).
Information in these pages can help health service organisations and clinicians identify and implement strategies to improve medication safety.
The health care that people receive in the last years, months and weeks of their lives can help to minimise the distress and grief associated with death and dying for the individual, and for their family, friends and carers.
In March 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the third Global Patient Safety Challenge with the theme of medication without harm. In April 2020, the Commission published Australia's response, highlighting Australia's goal to reduce medication errors, adverse drug events and medication-related harm.
Delivering comprehensive care in alignment with the Comprehensive Care Standard is about ensuring that health care provided is informed by a person's clinical and personal needs and preferences, is shaped by shared decisions, and is planned and delivered in partnership with the multidisciplinary team.
Our Clinical Directors and Medical Advisors provide expert clinical advice on the wide range of programs managed by the Commission.
This page includes information on Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and reports on monitoring the burden of CDI in Australian hospitals.
We, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we work, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
Communicating for safety involves the accurate and careful exchange of information about a person's care between treating clinicians, members of a multidisciplinary team, and between clinicians and patients, families and carers.
The primary care sector has an important role to play in improving the safe and appropriate use of antimicrobials, and reducing patient harm and the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Australia.
The Commission has identified a set of six elements for comprehensive care delivery, which represent different stages or processes that a patient may experience when clinical care is delivered in alignment with the Comprehensive Care Standard.
Measurement and feedback are key to quality improvement. Data can be used to identify areas where services are doing well and areas where improvement is required.
The Commission has developed a range of supportive resources on partnering with consumers and person-centred care.
Person-centred care is widely recognised as a foundation to safe, high-quality health care. It is care that respects and responds to the preferences, needs and values of patients and consumers.
Falls are a significant cause of harm for older people. The Commission has updated the best practice guidelines for preventing falls and harm from falls in older people.
To focus care on patients' needs, and determine the most appropriate model of care for the patient, it is important that health services identify and assess patients' risk of harm.
These FAQs answer some common questions about the Comprehensive Care Standard, and more generally what comprehensive care means in the Australian health system.
The Commission has developed the National Consensus Statement: Essential elements for safe high-quality end-of-life care which describes the key clinical and organisational requirements for delivering excellent end-of-life care.