Skip to main content

Indicators, measurement and reporting

Measurement and feedback are key to quality improvement. Data can be used to identify areas where services are doing well and areas where improvement is required. 

Measurement and feedback

The Commission undertakes a range of projects to support the meaningful use of data to improve care for patients and the efficiency for the health system. These projects aim to support the feedback of safety and quality data to multiple levels of the health system including consumers, clinicians, administrators and funders. 

Clinical Quality Registries

Working to support the uptake of national Clinical Quality Registries including the Framework for Clinical Quality Registries.

Find out more

  • MedicineInsight

    MedicineInsight is a primary care quality improvement program using data from Australian general practices to support best practice and identify key areas of improvement.

  • Clinical trials

    The Clinical Trials Governance Framework and next steps towards consistent accreditation of hospitals undertaking clinical trials

  • Pricing and funding

    A collaboration with Independent Hospital Pricing Authority to integrate safety and quality into systems for pricing and funding of Australian public hospitals

Hospital indicators

The Commission recommends that hospitals use a range of indicators to understand the care being provided in their service and identify areas where they are doing well and areas for improvement. The Commission has identified important domains for measurement in hospitals and has developed, or is in the process of developing, indicators for each of these domains. While these indicators provide useful information for improvement, hospitals may wish to use additional measures that relate to their needs and the needs of their patients.

  • Complications

    The national list Hospital-Acquired Complications and the Classification of Hospital-Acquired Diagnoses

  • Mortality

    Mortality measures included in the Core Hospital-Based Outcome Indicators

  • Readmissions

    The Avoidable Hospital Readmissions list and readmission indicators included in the Core Hospital-Based Outcome Indicators 

  • Incident management and sentinel events

    Information on incident management and version two of the Australian sentinel events list

  • Patient experience

    The Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set

  • Patient-reported outcomes

    Information to support the evidence-based collection and use

  • Patient safety culture

    The Patient Safety Culture Measurement Toolkit and the Australian Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture 2.0

  • Maternity

    The Severe Acute Maternal Morbidity Indicators and Hospital-Acquired Complications related to maternity

Clinical Care Standards indicators 

Each Clinical Care Standard includes recommended indicators and data sets to support implementation of the quality standards. 

Primary care indicators

Practice-level indicators of safety and quality for primary health care are designed for voluntary inclusion in quality improvement strategies by organisations and individuals providing primary health care services. 

Some patient-reported outcome measures are also suitable for use in primary care. 

Guides and resources

Resources to support service to measure safety and quality in their services and use this information to improve care.

Back to top