From 1 January 2023, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) became the custodian of a range of Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) functions, expanding our role in QUM stewardship. This follows the redesign of the Quality Use of Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Pathology (QUDTP) Program outlined in the 2022–23 Federal Budget.
Status updates for each function can be found below.
The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards support the rights of people with intellectual disability to equitable health care. People with intellectual disability experience significant barriers in accessing safe and quality care evident through a higher mortality rate, increased incidence of preventable illness and more frequent hospital admissions.
In this section, you will find guidance and resources for implementation of the NSQHS Standards, to support healthcare rights and provision of inclusive health care.
These frequently asked questions provide background on implementation of the National Safety and Quality Mental Health Standards for Community Managed Organisations (NSQMHCMO Standards).
Developing and using shared decision making tools can help clinicians to implement shared decision making in clinical practice.
Being actively involved in your health care and working in partnership with your healthcare providers can help ensure that you get the care that is right for you.
Identifying and setting goals of care is an important aspect of shared decision making for consumers, clinicians and health service organisations.
Effective clinical communication with both consumers and colleagues is essential for a collaborative, shared decision making approach to health care.
These case studies highlight the person-centred approaches and strategies used by other Australian and international healthcare organisations, to assist other organisations working to embed person-centred care.
Person-centred care must recognise and respect individual needs, beliefs and culture. Understanding the diversity of consumers seen in your organisation can help you design systems that support staff to better meet their needs.
The principles of person-centred care can help to support patient safety. The communication, culture and systems within healthcare organisations all play a role in fostering patient safety.
Summary of accreditation outcomes and lessons learnt from the assessment of general practices against the RACGP Standards for general practices (5th edition) and the RACGP Standards for point-of-care testing (5th edition).
To support implementation of the NGPA Scheme, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) provides guidance for the following:
- Notification of significant risk
- Extensions and appeals
- Out-of-cycle assessments
- Hybrid assessments
- Early assessments.
Accreditation provides assurances to the community that a general practice meets expected standards for safety and quality. It is a formal program in which trained independent reviewers assess a general practice’s evidence of implementation of the RACGP Standards for general practices and the RACGP Standards for point-of-care testing.
Embedding a person-centred approach throughout a healthcare organisation requires the involvement of all staff across various aspects of the patient journey.
Staff wellbeing and teamwork can help to support effective person-centred care. Research shows that patient experiences are better when healthcare staff feel they have a good working environment, low emotional exhaustion, and support from their coworkers and managers.
Evaluation and monitoring are critical aspects of any performance improvement. Evaluation should be conducted to identify areas of need, and ongoing monitoring should measure improvement and assist in the maintenance of standards.
Person-centred care is a way of supporting greater involvement of consumers in health care, which in turn creates better health outcomes. Over the past two decades, person-centred care has become internationally recognised as a dimension of delivering high-quality health care.