Understanding national safety and quality standards
We write safety and quality standards that are implemented right across the country.
You can think of standards as a set of rules that people must follow when delivering health care.
Our standards apply to a range of different places you receive care, which we often describe as ‘health services’.
Whether you are in hospital, seeing your GP, accessing a digital mental health service or having a special procedure done such as cosmetic surgery; our goal is to make sure you have access to high-quality care.
We have national safety and quality standards for:
- Clinical trials
- Community managed organisations providing mental health care
- Cosmetic surgery
- Diagnostic imaging
- Digital mental health
- Hospitals and day procedure services
- Pathology
- Primary care
Why are standards important?
The primary aim of our standards is to protect the public from harm.
They describe the level of care you can expect when accessing certain health services and a consistent approach for how health care should be delivered by health professionals.
Our standards cover topics such as medication safety and infection prevention and control, and technical aspects related to the service. For example, our pathology standards cover how samples should be transported after a blood test.
How are consumers involved in standards?
Embedded throughout our standards is the concept of partnering with consumers.
Partnering with consumers can happen in different ways, it can be you and your GP making decisions together about your own care (also called shared decision making) or working with a health organisation to shape what health care should look like.
We partner with consumers when designing, assessing and improving our standards, so they reflect the experiences and perspectives of consumers.
We do this by inviting consumer feedback and working alongside consumer representatives who advocate for the interests of consumers.
Our information about partnering with consumers and partnering with consumers guide provides more detail about consumer partnerships.
A consumer is a person who has used, or may potentially use, health services. They can also be a carer or loved one for a person using health services. We use this term in addition to the term “patient”.
How do I know a health service is meeting standards?
We ensure health services are meeting standards through accreditation.
Accreditation is the outcome awarded to health services that have successfully met the requirements of our standards.
To achieve accreditation, services are assessed by an independent accrediting agency. This generally happens every few years to ensure that health services continue to meet the standards.
We provide oversight of the accreditation process by managing the performance of accrediting agencies and reviewing the data from assessments to identify areas for improvement.
We also report on how health services are meeting our standards and provide registers so you can check they’re accredited services before visiting them.
Check a health service is accredited
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Explore assessment outcomes
We publish assessment outcomes data so the public can see how health services are performing.
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Explore accredited services
We maintain registers of accredited services to help the public find a service that is meeting expected standards of safety and quality.
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Safety in Health Care web tool
The Safety in Health Care web tool provides data on hospitals and day procedure services. The tool provides an easy way to search for any hospital in the country and see their results.
Can a consumer be involved in the accreditation process?
As a consumer, you can be involved at several points in the accreditation process.
A health service may:
- seek your advice about safety and quality issues through complaints or feedback
- ask if you would like to be interviewed about your experience as a consumer of the health service as part of the assessment process
- ask if you would like to review the health service’s safety and quality systems or processes as a consumer representative.
You can contact your health service to find out how you can be involved.
How can a consumer become an assessor?
Consumers can apply to become an assessor who reviews a health services systems and processes.
If you are interested in becoming a consumer assessor (also called a surveyor), you can contact an approved accrediting agency.
Feedback and complaints
Health professionals do their best every day to look after consumers, but despite their best efforts, things sometimes do go wrong.
If something has gone wrong, you can ask questions and find out more about what happened. The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights gives you the right to voice your concerns.
The people providing care and managing the service you have visited have a responsibility to answer your questions.
If you don’t get the answers you want, you might decide to make a complaint.
Read our advice on feedback and complaints for more information.
In some circumstances, health professionals are obligated to go through an open disclosure process with you. This means they have an honest conversation with you about an incident that caused you harm.
Want to learn more?
Our website provides dedicated information for consumers on a broad range of topics, including healthcare rights, health literacy, making informed choices and shared-decision making.
You can explore our content and let us know if there are topics you would like to know more about by using the feedback form at the bottom of this page.