The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC)

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care was established on 1 January 2006 to provide national leadership in health care safety and quality. Its publications include Reducing Harm to Patients from Health Care Associated Infection: The Role of Surveillance. The Commission succeeds the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care which operated from 2000 to 2005. The Council published a number of reports that included statistical information on the safety and quality of Australian health care, including Charting the Safety and Quality of Healthcare in Australia (2004) and the Safety through Action: Improving Patient Safety in Australia (2002).

The National Health Performance Committee

The former National Health Performance Committee has published a number of reports on the performance of the Australian health care system. The most recent report is the National Report on Health Sector Performance Indicators 2003 (2004). The Committee's previous performance reports and its report on the development of the National Health Performance Framework are available through the Indicators subject area page on this website.

The National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS)

The National Institute of Clinical Studies is Australia's national agency for improving health care by helping close important gaps between best available evidence and current clinical practice. It works to:

• identify opportunities to close important gaps
• support health professionals to apply evidence
• increase knowledge about evidence uptake
• build national capacity for evidence uptake

The National Institute of Clinical Studies has published the following reports that include statistical information on aspects of current health care practice, related to best practice information.

• Evidence-Practice Gaps Report, Volume 1: A Review of Developments 2004–2007 (2008)
• Evidence-Practice Gaps Report, Volume 2 (2005)

The Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision

The Review of Government Service Provision was initiated by the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers at the Premiers' Conference in July 1993. The Steering Committee for the Review, established in 1994, comprises senior representatives from Australian, State and Territory governments. The Report on Government Services

• publishes a set of performance indicators agreed by the Steering Committee
• publishes data for these indicators, for each jurisdiction (where possible)
• includes several chapters on the characteristics and performance of Australia's healthcare services.

The latest Steering Committee reports are

• Report on Government Services 2008
• Report on Government Services 2008 — Indigenous Compendium

The Australian Council for Healthcare Standards (ACHS)

The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to improving the quality of health care in Australia through continual review of performance, assessment and accreditation. It has developed 23 clinical indicator sets and publishes reports based on data submitted by health care organisations participating in its ACHS Comparative Report Service. The clinical indicator report provides information for each indicator on the average rate over a nine-year interval, the 20th and 80th centile range in the last reported year, and the use of the indicator data to identify priority areas for quality improvement in the health care system.

• Australasian Clinical Indicator Report 1998–2006. Determining the Potential to Improve Quality of Care: 8th Edition

The Australian Patient Safety Foundation (APSF)

The Australian Patient Safety Foundation Inc. is a non-profit independent organisation dedicated to the advancement of patient safety. The APSF provides leadership in the reduction of harm to patients in all health care environments. Resources available from the website include

• Iatrogenic Injury in Australia (2000)
• List of APSF articles on patient safety up to 2005

The Australian Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA)

The Australian Department of Health and Ageing publishes a range of statistical information relevant to the safety and quality of Australia's health care system. Recent publications include

• The State of our Public Hospitals, June 2008 Report (2008)
• Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Vaccination Coverage in Australia, 2003 to 2005 (2007)
• The National Mental Health Report 2007 (2007)

The Department also publishes statistics on Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The Communicable Diseases Intelligence journal aims to disseminate information on the epidemiology and control of communicable disease in Australia.

State and territory health departments

The New South Wales Department of Health

The New South Wales Department of Health has published information on incident management reporting in its health care facilities, most recently for 2007:

• Incident Management in the NSW Public Health System 2007, July to December (2008)
• Incident Management in the NSW Public Health System 2007, January to June (2007)

Other recent publications with information relevant to the safety and quality of health care include

• Hospital Activity Performance: Month — June 2008
• 1997–2007 Report on Older People from the New South Wales Population Health Survey (2008)
• Report on Young Adults from the New South Wales Population Health Survey 1997–2007 (2008)
• NSW Mothers and babies 2005, NSW Public Health Bulletin Supplement Volume 19, Number S-1 (2007)
• The Health of the People of NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer (2006)
• NSW Trauma Minimum Data Set 2004 Annual Report (2005)

The Victorian Department of Human Services

Victoria's Department of Human Services has published reports on the activity and performance of its public hospitals such as:

• Your hospitals A six-monthly report on Victoria's public hospitals July to December 2007 (2008)
• Sentinel Event Program Annual Report 2006–07 (2007)
• Cardiac Surgery in Victorian Public Hospitals 2005–06. Report to the Public (2007)
• Vascular Surgery in Victorian Public Hospitals 2005–06. Report to the public (2007)
• Intensive Care for Adults in Victorian Public Hospitals 2003–04. Report to the Public (2005)

Other relevant reports include

• Patient Safety in Public Hospitals, by the Victorian Auditor-General (2008)
• PUPPS 3 — Pressure Ulcer Point Prevalence Survey Statewide Report 2006 (2006)

Queensland Department of Health (Queensland Health)

Queensland Health has published statistics related to the safety and quality of health care in the following reports.

• Queensland Hospitals in the 21st Century: Leading the Way (2003)
• Queensland Public Hospitals Performance Report 2006–07 (2007)
• Patient Safety: From Learning to Action. First Queensland Health Report on Clinical Incidents and Sentinel Events (2007)
• Measured Quality — 2004 Reports (2005)
• The Health of Queenslanders 2006 (2006)
• Cancer in Queensland Incidence and Mortality 1982 to 2005 Statistical Tables, by the Queensland Cancer Registry (2008)
• Perinatal Statistics Queensland 2006 (2008)
• Health of Queenslanders Status Report (2003)

Western Australian Department of Health (WA Health)

The Western Australian Department of Health has recently published the following reports related to the safety and quality of the state's health care.

• WA Health Performance Report: April to June 2008 Quarter (2008)
• Delivering Safer Health Care in Western Australia: WA Sentinel Event Report 2006–2007 (2007)
• Perinatal Statistics in Western Australia, 2005 (2007)
• Health Measures 2005: A Report on the Health of the People of Western Australia (2005)

South Australian Department of Health (SA Health)

The South Australia Department of Health has recently published several reports on its website relating to the safety and quality of the state's health care.

• Improving the System: South Australian Safety Report 2004–2005 (2007)
• South Australian Pressure Ulcer Point Prevalence Survey Report 2007 (2007)
• South Australian Safety and Quality Framework and Strategy 2007–2011 (2006)
• Patterns of Fall Injury in an Ageing Population in South Australia: A Challenge for Prevention and Cure, by Jerry Moller, Injury Prevention and Health Research Consultants (2002)

The Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services

The Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services has published its DHHS Annual Report 2006–07 (2007), which includes performance information on hospitals and other health services. Other reports related to the safety and quality of health care in Tasmania include:

• Palliative Care in Tasmania: Current Situation and Future Directions, by the Centre for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong (2004)
• Council of Obstetric & Paediatric Mortality & Morbidity Tasmania: Annual Report for 2005 (2005)

Australian Capital Territory Department of Health (ACT Health)

The Australian Capital Territory Department of Health recent reports on quality and safety in health care include

• Australian Capital Territory Chief Health Officer's Report 2008 (2008)
• ACT Health Annual Report 2006–07
• Quality and Safety in ACT Health Care: Report on Progress (2003)

The Northern Territory Department of Health and Families

The Northern Territory Department of Health and Families recent reports related to the safety and quality of health care include

• The Health and Wellbeing of Northern Territory Women: From the Desert to the Sea 2005 (2005)
• Northern Territory Midwives Collection: Mothers and Babies 2000–2002 (2005)

Last reviewed by Safety and Quality on 19 September 2008