The National Health Reform Act 2011 establishes expanded functions for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, which include advising health ministers on national clinical standards.
To take this forward, the Commission has established a Clinical Care Standards Program that aims to provide:
- an expected level of care for people receiving care from the healthcare system
- health care professionals with decision making tools to provide appropriate care
- health services with tools to examine their organisation’s performance and make improvements in the care they provide.
Health Ministers have approved the development of clinical care standards in the areas of Acute Coronary Syndrome, Stroke and Antimicrobial Stewardship in 2013.
The Commission’s directive is to develop at least 3 clinical care standards every year including clinical and patient decision support tools.
Each clinical care standard will consist of a small number of quality statements that describe the key components of clinical care that a patient should be offered for a specific clinical condition or defined part of a clinical pathway, along with derived quality measures and national indicators.
The clinical care standards will be developed collaboratively with healthcare professionals, clinical experts, measurement experts, patients and carers.
More information
For more information, please contact Ms Rosio Cordova, Program Manager on (02) 9126 3600 or mail@safetyandquality.gov.au