Clinical Governance Framework: Patient safety and quality improvement systems

Patients and consumers

• Provide feedback, complaints and compliments about experiences in the health service organisation, including
  • participating in patient experience surveys
  • communicating with the organisation about any opportunities for improving services and systems
  • communicating with the organisation about potential safety and quality risks
• Consider being involved in quality improvement projects within the health service organisation
• Consider advocating for, or representing, other patients in focus groups and meetings to improve the health service organisation and the care that is delivered
• Consider reviewing and commenting on reports on safety and quality of the health service organisation
• Consider participating in the review of safety and quality incidents or other serious adverse events, when opportunities exist

Clinicians

• Contribute to the design of systems for the delivery of safe, high-quality clinical care
• Provide clinical care within the parameters of these systems
• Communicate with clinicians in other health service organisations to support good clinical outcomes
• Ensure contemporary knowledge about safe system design
• Maintain vigilance for opportunities to improve systems
• Ensure that identified opportunities for improvement are raised and reported appropriately
• Educate junior clinicians in the importance of working within the organisational systems for the delivery of clinical care
• Take part in the design and implementation of systems within the health service organisation for
  • quality improvement and measurement
  • risk management
  • incident management
  • open disclosure
  • feedback and complaints management
• Comply with professional regulatory requirements and codes of conduct

Managers (including clinical managers)

• Coordinate and oversee the design of systems for the delivery of clinical care
• Engage with clinicians on all system design issues
• Allocate appropriate resources to implement well-designed systems of care
• Respond to identified concerns about the design of systems
• Periodically, systematically review the design of systems for safety and quality
• Set up an operational policy and procedure framework, with the active engagement of clinicians
• Ensure availability of data and information to clinicians to support quality assurance and improvement
• Ensure that safety and quality systems reflect the role of the health service organisation within a wider network of local and other health services and providers
• Implement and resource effective systems for management of
  • quality improvement and measurement
  • risk management
  • incident management
  • open disclosure
  • feedback and complaints
• Systematically monitor performance across all safety and quality systems
• Report to the health service organisation and governing body

Governing bodies

• Ensure that all systems for the delivery of care are regularly reviewed for their ability to support safe, high-quality care
• Incorporate systematic audits of safety and quality systems in the whole-of-organisation audit program
• Ensure availability of data and information to support quality assurance and review across the organisation
• Monitor system performance, and consider implications for system design and opportunities for improvement
• Ensure that the following safety and quality systems are in place, involve all members of the clinical workforce and are subject to periodic review of performance
  • quality improvement and measurement
  • risk management
  • incident management
  • open disclosure
  • feedback and complaints management