Medicine shortages and discontinuations can potentially compromise patient safety. Guidance and resources are issued, which advise on:
The nonpharmacological and pharmacological options for managing acute pain are discussed with a patient and their carer in a way that they can understand, and that leads to a shared understanding of the decision to use an opioid analgesic or other treatment(s).
Medication charts help to standardise medication management and can increase medication safety.
The charts are based on the best evidence available at the time of development. Healthcare professionals are advised to use clinical discretion and consider the circumstances for individual patients when using the charts for patient medication management in acute care settings.
The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Clinical Care Standard provides guidance to clinicians and healthcare services on managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The standard was released on 17 October 2024.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Planning for appropriate analgesic use at the transfer of care begins when a patient is started on an opioid analgesic during their hospital visit, according to an agreed opioid analgesic weaning and cessation protocol. The number of days’ supply of an opioid analgesic on discharge is based on multiple factors, including the expected course of the patient’s condition, appropriate arrangements for follow-up and opioid analgesic use in the last 24 hours before discharge.
The Commission has developed a suite of resources to assist health service organisations to implement AS 5369:2023 Reprocessing of reusable medical devices and other devices in health and non-health related facilities.
Annual revalidation is a method of ensuring all Hand Hygiene Auditors and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators remain up to date with their knowledge of the 5 Moments and audit practices. This ensures valid and reliable data for the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI).
Clinical variation is a difference in healthcare processes or outcomes, compared to peers or to a gold standard such as an evidence-based guideline recommendation.
Data on hand hygiene compliance are collected by states and territories for all public health service organisations, and by many private health service organisations, and reported nationally three times per year for the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI).
The Commission has developed a number of videos and webinars on shared decision making.
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 Commission has developed resources to support residential care providers and software vendors to implement and optimise their electronic National Residential Medication Chart (eNRMC) medication management systems.
The National Consensus Statement: Essential elements for recognising and responding to acute physiological deterioration sets out the agreed practice for recognising and responding to acute physiological deterioration. It was developed as a generic document that applies to all patients in all acute care facilities in Australia.
A comprehensive care plan is a document or digital view describing agreed goals of care, and outlining planned medical, nursing, midwifery and allied health activities for a patient. A single comprehensive care plan should be prepared for a patient so that core information can be shared, accessed and acted on by all members of the multidisciplinary team.