These FAQs answer some common questions about the Comprehensive Care Standard, and more generally what comprehensive care means in the Australian health system.
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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.
The Commonwealth, state and territory governments across Australia are increasing their focus on improving the safety and quality of end-of-life care.
Reviewing the delivery of comprehensive care is important for ensuring patients are receiving care that meets their clinical and personal needs; that risks are efficiently and effectively identified and mitigated; that the agreed comprehensive care plan is achieving what it aimed to; and that patient goals and expectations are being met.
The delivery of comprehensive care should aim to address the health issues the patient was admitted with, and the risks of harm identified, to achieve the agreed clinical and personal goals of care.
A documented comprehensive care plan (or plan for care) reflects shared decisions made with patients, carers and families about the tests, interventions, treatments and other activities needed to achieve the goals of care.
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. Identifying patients who may be at risk of harm, and mitigating the risks for those patients is a core part of comprehensive care planning and treatment.
Goals of care describe what a patient wants to achieve during an episode of care, within the context of their clinical situation. Goals of care are the clinical and personal goals for a patient’s episode of care that are determined through a shared decision-making process.
The first step in delivering comprehensive care is undertaking a clinical assessment. Clinical assessment should be based on the patient’s subjective report of the symptoms and course of the illness or condition, and objective findings from clinical assessment to determine provisional and differential diagnoses.
The Commission has developed information for consumers on some key safety and quality issues, and health conditions.
Effective infection prevention and control practices reduce the risk of transmission of infections between patients, healthcare workers and others in the healthcare environment.
Clinical governance is central to providing the best outcomes for patients. It is the combination of culture, systems and processes that enables everyone in a health service to deliver care that is consistently high quality and improving.
It is the system by which boards, executives, clinical leaders and the workforce are accountable to patients and the community for providing high-quality care - care that is person-centred, safe, effective, accessible, and integrated in a system that is equitable, efficient and sustainable.
Through the cognitive impairment program, the Commission is supporting health service organisations to improve the safety and quality of health care for people with cognitive impairment.