Implementation Guide for the National Consensus Statement on clinical deterioration

Using the guide

This comprehensive Guide to Support Implementation of the National Consensus Statement (the guide) will help facilities to:

• Improve systems for recognising and responding to clinical deterioration
• Ensure criteria outlined in NSQHS Standard: Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration is in place.

Using the guide and its accompanying tools and resources will help organisations to:

• Assess current systems
• Identify any factors that may be contributing to poor performance
• Develop solutions to address these factors.

Who should use the implementation guide?

The information in the guide will support health professionals with responsibility for the development, implementation and ongoing evaluation of recognition and response systems to make the system changes needed to achieve the agreed practice outlined in the Consensus Statement.

This may include senior executives, health service managers, clinicians, educators or people with responsibility for policy or quality improvement.  The guide is designed for use both across whole facilities and within individual wards or clinical areas.

How should the implementation guide be used?

The implementation guide gives health professionals information, resources and tools to implement the eight essential elements from the Consensus Statement. Health professionals are encouraged to use improvement methodologies appropriate to their facility to provide a structured and systematic process for the implementation of the tasks and actions described in the guide.

Guide structure

Each chapter of the guide contains information about the:

• Rationale and evidence for the inclusion of the essential element
• Goals of the essential element
• Tasks required to reach each goal
• Evidence or rationale for each task
• Actions required to complete each task.

Follow the three steps within each chapter to help you to identify:

1. Who has responsibilities in achieving the goals of each essential element
2. If there are gaps in your current systems
3. How you can use the information in the guide to design and implement your action plan.

Accessing the guide

The guide is available for download:

National Consensus Statement: essential elements for recognising and responding to clinical deterioration: Implementation Guide

2011

Guide, user guide or guidelines