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. The Commission's publications website has links to its publicly distributed reports and other resources under various headings, which include:
- Falls Prevention Guidelines
- Measurement for Improvement Toolkit
- Medication Safety Related Publications
- NIMC (National Inpatient Medication Chart) Related Commission Publications
- Primary Care
- Proposed National Safety and Quality Framework
- Reducing harm to patients from healthcare associated infection: the role of surveillance
- Windows into Safety and Quality in Health Care.
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).
Australian Health Ministers' Conference Indicator Sets
In 1999, the Australian Health Ministers' Conference established a National Health Performance Committee with the directive to develop and maintain a national health performance framework. Between 2000 and 2004, the Committee reported on the performance of the Australian health care system through a range of indicators for which data were nationally available.
In 2008, the Australian Health Ministers' Conference decided on the development of a different set of performance indicators covering the entire health and aged care system. The AIHW was commissioned to produce the indicator set, which is available through the Indicators subject area page on the AIHW website.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
In March 2010 the National Health and Medical Research Council launched its portal designed to help clinicians, researchers, policy makers and consumers access guidelines developed over the previous five years for Australia's health care system. Documented guidelines approved by the NHMRC include:
The National Institute of Clinical Studies is an institute within the NHMRC which focuses on improving health care. It aims to work towards closing current gaps between best available evidence and clinical practice by:
- working in partnership with clinical groups and health care organisations to help improve evidence uptake in areas where there are important evidence-practice gaps
- providing access to resources and evidence for health professionals, managers, researchers and policy makers
- providing opportunities for health professionals to increase knowledge and skills in improving evidence uptake.
The National Institute of Clinical Studies has published several reports and reviews on gaps between best health care practices, based on clinical evidence, and current practice in Australia. These publications include statistical information on clinical practices as they are currently performed and how they could be improved.
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 report, in two volumes, is the
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 an eight-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.
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 links to journal articles co-written by members of the Foundation and information on ordering their textbook Safety and Ethics in Health Care: A Guide to Getting it Right.
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 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
New South Wales Department of Health (NSW Health)
The New South Wales Department of Health has published information on incident management reporting in its health care facilities, most recently for 2007:
Other recent publications with information relevant to the safety and quality of health care include
Victorian Department of Health
The Victorian Department of Health has created a website, Your hospitals: an overview of public hospital activity, which contains information about the public hospital system and reports on individual hospital performance. It also has an information website which provides links to its publications and those produced by Victoria's Department of Human Services, which used to be responsible for health. Relevant reports include:
Queensland Department of Health (Queensland Health)
Queensland Health has established a Patient Safety Centre which lists its articles and reports on safety and quality in health care. Its latest reports are listed below along with other recently published sources for statistics on Queenslanders' health and the Queensland health system.
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.
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.
Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services
The Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services has recently published a series of surveillance reports on health-care associated infections. In addition, the Department's Annual Report 2008-09 (2009) includes performance information on hospitals and other health services. Other reports related to the safety and quality of health care in Tasmania include:
Australian Capital Territory Department of Health (ACT Health)
The Australian Capital Territory Department of Health publishes quarterly reports on the performance of its public health services. Its other recent reports relevant to safety and quality in health care include:
Northern Territory Department of Health and Families
The Northern Territory Department of Health and Families recent reports with information relevant to the safety and quality of health care include
Last reviewed by Safety and Quality on 27 May 2010