Indicators for the Acute Anaphylaxis Clinical Care Standard

A set of indicators have been developed to support monitoring of the care recommended in the Acute Anaphylaxis Clinical Care Standard. Clinicians and health service organisations can use the indicators to support local quality improvement activities.

Indicator specifications

The Commission has developed a set of indicators to support clinicians and health services to monitor how well they are implementing the care described in this clinical care standard. Clinicians and health service organisations can use the indicators to support local quality improvement activities. No benchmarks are set for any indicator.

Detailed specifications for the indicators for the Acute Anaphylaxis Clinical Care Standard are available on the Metadata Online Registry at meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/745144

METeOR is an Australian web-based repository of nationally endorsed data and indicator definitions, hosted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Each indicator is described below and links to its specifications are provided.

List of indicators

1 Prompt recognition of anaphylaxis

Indicator 1a: Evidence of a locally approved anaphylaxis pathway. The pathway should include:

An assessment protocol that outlines the clinical criteria to support prompt diagnosis of anaphylaxis
Systems to ensure patients experiencing allergic reactions are monitored appropriately for possible progression of symptoms to anaphylaxis
A process to ensure clinicians are competent in the anaphylaxis pathway, and
A process to assess adherence to the pathway.

2 Immediate injection of intramuscular adrenaline

4 Access to a personal adrenaline injector in all healthcare settings

Indicator 4a: Evidence of a locally approved policy to ensure patients maintain access to their personal adrenaline injectors. The policy should specify the:

Organisation’s protocol to identify patients admitted to hospital who carry adrenaline injectors
Organisation’s protocol for patients to maintain access to their adrenaline injectors for self-administration throughout their hospital stay, and
Process to ensure all staff are informed of the patients who are at risk of anaphylaxis and must have their adrenaline injectors personally available for self-administration at all times while admitted to hospital.

6 Discharge management and documentation

Indicator 6a: Evidence of local arrangements that ensure patients treated for anaphylaxis receive tailored discharge planning prior to separation from hospital. The local arrangements should specify the:

Patient education resources, referrals and discharge documents to be provided to patients
Process to provide patients with personal adrenaline injectors, if indicated
Information that must be documented in the patient’s medical record after treatment for anaphylaxis, and
Organisation’s process to assess adherence to the local arrangements.

Indicator 6b: Proportion of patients treated for anaphylaxis separated from hospital with a completed ASCIA Action Plan for Anaphylaxis or ASCIA Action Plan for Drug (Medication) Allergy.

Indicator 6c: Proportion of patients treated for anaphylaxis who require adrenaline injectors who are supplied or prescribed an adrenaline injector prior to separation from hospital.

Measuring and monitoring patient experiences

Systematic, routine monitoring of patients’ experiences of, and outcomes from, health care is an important way to ensure that the patient’s perspective drives service improvements and person-centred care. This is the case in all health services.

Patient experience measures

While this clinical care standard does not include indicators specific to measuring patient experiences, the Commission strongly encourages health services to use the Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set (AHPEQS). AHPEQS is a 12-question generic patient experience survey that has been validated in both day-only and admitted hospital patients across many clinical settings.

The AHPEQS question set is available for both private and public sector health services, and has been translated into 20 languages.

Patient-reported outcome measures

In Australia, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are an emerging method of assessing the quality of health care. The Commission is leading a national work program to support the consistent and routine use of PROMs to drive quality improvement.

PROMs are standardised, validated questionnaires that patients complete, without any input from healthcare providers. They are often administered at least twice to an individual patient – at baseline and again after an intervention, or at regular intervals during a chronic illness. The information contributed by patients filling out PROMs questionnaires can be used to support and monitor the movement of health systems towards person-centred, value-based health care.

PROMs are being used to evaluate healthcare effectiveness at different levels of the health system, from the individual level to service and system levels. There is growing interest across Australia and internationally in the routine interrogation of patient-reported outcome information for evaluation and decision-making activities at levels of the health system beyond the clinical consultation.

Useful resources from the Commission

Thumbnail of the Acute Anaphylaxis Clinical Care Standard HSO Fact Sheet

Health Service Organisations Information Sheet - Acute Anaphylaxis Clinical Care Standard

2021

Publication, report or update

This document describes each of the quality statements and indicators included in the Acute Anaphylaxis Clinical Care Standard and their relevance to health service organisations.

If you have any questions about the Acute Anaphlyaxis Clinical Care Standard please email ccs@safetyandquality.gov.au.

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