Hospitals
The Ageing and Aged Care in Australia booklet
The Ageing and Aged Care in Australia booklet provides a concise overview of the Australian Government's ageing and aged care policies and programs.
AHCRA statement on Reducing Hospital Waiting Lists
On 28 July 2006, Kerren Clark on behalf of the AHCRA, delivered an Opening Statement to the ACT Public Accounts and Estimates Committee that outlined four key strategies for reducing hospital waiting lists.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework 2010 report
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework monitors progress in closing the gap in Indigenous Australian health outcomes, health system performance and broader determinants of health.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce National Strategic Framework (2002)
The Workforce Strategic Framework presents a 5-10 year reform agenda to build a competent health workforce to address the health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Hospital Accreditation Project Community Report
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Hospital Accreditation Project aims to obtain accurate data about the use of hospitals by Koori patients and to help develop more accessible and culturally appropriate hospital services. This report looks at the problems and successes of the project and makes suggestions for improvement.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Patient Quality Improvement Toolkit for Hospital Staff
Quality improvement processes, tools and guidelines to enhance the service response to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities by Australian hospitals.
The aim of this study was to develop and pilot test a brief survey for patients in Swiss hospitals. Evidence from the qualitative interviews indicates that safety remains an unsaid word between patients and their care providers.
Alice Springs Hospital: Consumer Feedback Questionnaire and Guide for Interviewers
Consists of a Consumer Feedback Questionnaire and Guide for Interviewers for the Alice Springs Hospital. This is a companion document to the report 'Alice Springs Hospital: Implementing consumer feedback into a continuous quality improvement framework', also available from the this website.
Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights
The Charter specifies the key rights of patients and consumers when seeking or receiving healthcare services and was developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, following an extensive national consultation process.
PDF and audio file avaliable
This document has been prepared specially for those who have a governance
role within the health system. This includes roles with responsibility for setting strategic direction, and overseeing the delivery of health care by health services, hospitals or regional healthcare organisations.
This document has been prepared specially for people who directly provide
healthcare services to consumers, patients and client.
This checklist is a tool to assist health service boards of directors to review their safety and quality program against the elements of the policy. It may be used as a guide to the roles and responsibilities that boards and management have in facilitating effective implementation of the policy.
Bringing the Community Voice to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
In 1999, the Victorian government conducted a Ministerial Review of Health Care Networks that resulted in the establishment of 12 Metropolitan Health Services (MHS). It was recommended that the community have meaningful input into the MHSs’ planning, service delivery and policy development through a number of mechanisms including the creation of Community Advisory Communities (CAC). This article describes the experiences, challenges and achievements of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre CAC in Melbourne.
Communicating with Consumers: Evidence into Practice
The Victorian Quality Council has developed this two-part report aimed at improving quality and safety in hospitals by improving communication between health professionals and consumers and carers. Part 1 reviews the existing evidence about the impact of effective communication strategies in improving quality and safety of patient care. Part 2 is guide aimed at assisting hospitals to improve communication.
Communicating with patients in emergency departments
Produced by the University of Technology Sydney.
The philosophy of Aboriginal community control is particularly strong in Victoria and the stories collected here represent only a small portion of the positive outcomes achieved by Victorian Aboriginal community controlled health services.
Community Advisory Committees in Victoria’s Metropolitan Health Services
Increasingly, governments at both the state and federal level are encouraging health services to incorporate consumer participation into their structure for planning, decision-making and evaluation. This article describes how in Victoria, Consumer Advisory Committees have been used to bring a consumer voice into the Metropolitan Health Services.
Community and consumer participation framework
This framework provides health service managers and service providers within Central Northern Adelaide Health Service with an overarching structure for the development of local strategies and action plans for community and consumer participation and describes the principles in which we will operate
Consumer Participation at Women’s and Children’s Health
Consumer participation at Women’s and Children’s Health (the Royal Women’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital) has been undertaken at a variety of formal and informal levels for a number of years. Participation strategies have included community consultation for service planning, community advisory committees, consumer liaison/advocate positions, development of charters of consumers’ rights and responsibilities, patient satisfaction surveys and focus groups. This article gives a snapshot of past and present consumer oriented activities at Women’s and Children’s Health, together with the findings of a survey conducted to explore staff views about consumer participation.
Consumer Views of Hospital Errors in the USA
Unfortunately not all hospital visits run smoothly, mistakes can be made during medical procedures, some leading to injury or death. In many countries governments, health providers and consumers are showing increasing interest in such adverse events. Many initiatives are being implemented to reduce the incidence of medical errors and some of these involve consumers. This article describes the findings of research conducted in the USA into consumer concerns about medical adverse events and reports on US federal programs to inform consumers about their role in preventing medical errors.
Consumer and Community Participation Self-Assessment Tool for Hospitals
This tool was produced in 2003 after an evaluation conducted with five metropolitan health services led to revision of the previous audit tool created by National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health. The tool is designed to help hospitals and hospital units to assess how much scope their system allows for consumer (patient), carer and community participation. The tool helps to document policies, processes and activities; identify strengths and weaknesses; and determine the steps and resources needed for improvements. The tool can also be used by hospitals to rate current activities using the EQuIP scale.
Consumer self-rated outcome measures in mental health: A report to the Mental Health Branch
A comparative analysis of the consumer self-rating outcome measures now in use in mental health services throughout Australia, identifying international best practice, and making recommendations towards a uniform national approach.
Creating a Greener Environment at Northern Health
Like all other health care facilities, Northern Health has a significant stake in environmental health, which is reflected in two distinct but equally important realities of modern health care provision—both as a major consumer of various types of natural resources and as a major producer of various types of waste. Recent years have provided many opportunities to improve the environmental impact of health care provision and this article outlines some of the achievements Northern Health was made to lessen its impact on the environment.
The Victorian Clinical governance policy framework is the Department of Health’s policy on clinical governance. This checklist is a tool to assist the department to review its roles and responsibilities in facilitating effective implementation of the policy.
The Victorian Clinical governance policy framework is the Department of Health’s policy on clinical governance. This checklist is a tool to assist the department to review its roles and responsibilities in facilitating effective implementation of the policy.
Doing It With Us Not For Us: Strategic direction 2010–13
The policy’s Strategic direction for 2010-13 targets the Victorian
public health service system including acute, subacute, mental health,
community health, and residential aged care facilities.The new Strategic direction 2010-13 is centred upon a comprehensive suite of participation standards, indicators and targets for health
services.
The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards: EQuIP5 Standards and Criteria
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the CAC to boards fo Victorian Public Health Services
Evaluation of the community advisory committees in Victoria conducted by Health Outcomes Internation for the Department of Human Services
Exploring Women-centred Care in Maternity Services Report
This project was undertaken in conjunction with the Royal Women's Hospital and funded by the Council on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in 2005. The project aimed to compare womens' and midwives' understandings of women-centred care in the midwifery-led component of TeamCare in the maternity care program of the Hospital. This report documents: a systematice review on definitions and practices in women-centred and patient-centred care; current understandings and practices of the staff working in the midwifery-led component of the TeamCare program in relation to women-centred care; experiences and perceptions of consumers of women-centred care including their views on important aspects of care and continuity of care; barriers and enablers to this program; and recommendations for strategies to maximise the effectiveness of women-centred care in the midwifery-led TeamCare program.
This document sets an agenda for collaborative government action in mental health for five years from 2009, offers a framework to develop a system of care that is able to intervene early and provide integrated services across health and social domains, and provides guidance to governments in considering future funding priorities for mental health.
Health expenditure in Australia in 2008-09 reached $112.8 billion, an increase of $9.2 billion since 2007-08. The area of health expenditure with the largest increase was public hospital services, which accounted for over one-quarter of the total increase in 2008-09. 'Health expenditure Australia 2008-09' examines expenditure on different types of health goods and services in the decade to 2008-09. The report: . describes funding by the Australian Government and state governments, private health insurance and individuals . compares health expenditures in the different states and territories . compares Australia's spending with other countries'. Published by the Australian Insitute of Health and Welfare
The Victorian Clinical governance policy framework is the Department of Health’s policy on clinical governance. This checklist is a tool to assist health care teams to review their safety and quality program against the elements of the policy. It may be used as a guide to the roles and responsibilities that health care teams have in facilitating effective implementation of the policy.
How are Community Advisory Committees meeting the ‘Doing it with us not for us’ Policy
19 Community Advisory Committees (CACs) across Victoria are asked to identify one objective/action in Community Participation Plans (CPP) and discuss how it relates to the priority actions and standards in ‘Doing it with us not for us’Policy.
Implementation guidelines for public mental health services and private hospitals
Information to guide implementation of the national standards for mental health services by public mental health services and private hospitals.
Involving consumers in improving hospital care: lessons from Australian hospitals
The aim of this project was to write a report directed at hospitals which provides examples from Australian hospitals of how consumer partnership can be used to improve quality of care. This report provides the first analytical account of what might make consumer partnership work in hospitals. It contains a range of case studies and a few good examples of consumer participation.
Managing Two Worlds Together: Study 2-Staff Perspectives on Care for Country Aboriginal Patients
Study 2-Staff Perspectives on Care for Country Aboriginal Patients reports the views of staff who provide care for country Aboriginal patients in city and country hospitals and health services
Managing Two Worlds Together: Study 3-The Experiences of Patients and Their Carers
Study 3-The Experiences of Patients and Their Carers is a first-hand report of rural Aboriginal patients and their carers.
Mixing oil and water is a difficult task and it is generally thought to be impossible. Yet through the addition of a surfactant that changes the surface tension, the two can be mixed successfully. At first glance bringing about improved health for Aboriginal people also appears to be an impossible task. This article will examine the national and state policy platform regarding Aboriginal health and how they combine with current research to inform the Improving Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Patients Strategy. It will also explore how this policy has started to become a reality on the ground by examining what has occurred at St Vincent's in Melbourne and by demonstrating how this offers a meaningful basis on which to build upon.
National Mental Health Commission Workshop 2011: Report of key issues and themes
The National Mental Health Commission Workshop brought together Government, service providers, consumers and carers from around Australia, to discuss the establishment and priority focus for the new National Mental Health Commission, due to commence in January 2012. This report summarises what was discussed at the workshop.
National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards 2011
The Commission developed the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards to drive the implementation and use of safety and quality systems and improve the quality of health service provision in Australia.
National Standards for Mental Health Services 2010
This document outlines a revised set of mental health service standards which can be applied to all mental health services, including government, non-government and private sectors across Australia.
On the Receiving End: A Consumer’s Perspective of Care in the Community
This article explores the consumer experience of Hospital in the Home (HITH) through the prism of the author’s and her family’s experience with post acute discharge practices and palliative care in the home. It raises issues concerning home care’s impact on the lives of consumers and their carers. Will families and communities be able to provide the support their unwell members require? How will people without family and friends to ‘help out’ cope?
Parliamentary Inquiry into Community Advisory Committees in Metropolitan Health Services
Four years ago, the Victorian government established the Metropolitan Health Services, and to ensure that Victorian public hospitals were responsive to community needs, legislation was changed to require each Metropolitan Health Service to establish a Community Advisory Committee. This article describes how Community Advisory Committees have developed over this period and an Inquiry held to examine the role of Community Advisory Committees in Metropolitan Health Services.
Participation Indicators - Participation in your Health Service System
This discussion paper provides a recommended minimum set of performance indicators for consumer participation in acute and sub-acute areas.
Patient Participation: Current Knowledge and Applicability to Patient Safety
This article will be highly relevant to people undertaking research, and for people working in quality and safety contexts. Table 4 provides an analysis of medical errors and the potential roles for patients in preventing such errors.
Patient Safety at Johns Hopkins Medicine
Johns Hopkins Hospital is committed to excellence. A very important part of that excellence is our commitment to your safety. Patients who are more involved with their care in the hospital tend to do better and stay safer. By working together with physicians, nurses and other hospital staff, you can lower your risk of injury and make your hospital stay as safe as possible.
Patient Satisfaction Surveys in Australian Public Hospitals
Surveying hospital consumers is a key method hospitals use to understand consumers’ views on the quality of care they received. One of the most commonly used surveying tools is patient satisfaction surveys. This article presents the findings of recent research conducted by the National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health that examined the key features of patient satisfaction surveys in Australian public hospitals.
Patient-centred care: Improving quality and safety through partnerships with patients and consumers
This paper includes information on the background, context, evidence and impetus for improving quality and safety by giving health care a more patient centred focus. The paper also provides practical examples, tools, tips and resources that can be used by Australian healthcare organisations to re-orient their systems to a more patient centred approach.
People-Centred Health Care: A Policy Framework (WHO)
This policy framework for people-centred health care has been prepared by the World Health Organization to help governments and other health partners in encouraging dialogue and initiating action.
Performance Reporting for Consumers
Issues for the Australian Private Hospital Sector
This article describes how a group of consumers created a consumer-driven performance report for a private health service.
Project to support nurses to involve consumers in their health care.
An eight month project which sought to examine issues (barriers) which impact upon the development of nurse-consumer partnerships in acute health care. Results from pre and post-workshop surveys of nurses' attitudes to nurse-consumer partnerships demonstrate a strong belief in and commitment to the notion of partnership.
The workshop were designed to provide policy perspectives on consumer participation in mental health research, background information about stakeholder views about benefits, barriers and priorities for action to promote consumer participation in research and models for active consumer involvement in research.
Queensland Health: community engagement handbook
A handbook developed by the Consumer and Community Participation Program Area of the Quality Improvement and Enhancement Program for use by District Health Councils. The handbook is a companion document to the Consumer and community participation toolkit developed for Queensland Health Staff. The toolkit is also available from this website.
Queensland Health: position statement: consumer and community participation
Consumer and community participation in health service planning and delivery is part of the way in which Queensland Health engages with Queenslanders. The intention of this document is to provide a clear guide to consumer and community participation at district and local service delivery level.
This is a new independent online service that produces Reviews of medical journals. The Reviews include 10 research summaries selected from the top global peer-reviewed journals with commentary from a key Australian specialist in that field on the implications for practice. They are only four pages and take about 15 minutes to read.
Respecting Patient Choices: Literature Review
Austin Health's groundbreaking Respecting Patient Choices (RPC) Project has aimed to allow patients and their families to make advance decisions about end-of-life care. During 2006, Health Issues Centre conducted a literature review as part of this project. The review was around cultural perceptions and practice on advance care planning.
Response to Draft Cancer Patient Management Framework
Health Issues Centre submitted a response to the Victorian Department of Human Service's Draft Cancer Patient Management Framework.
Response to the scoping study for a new peak national mental health consumer organisation (2011)
Australian Government response to the scoping study to inform the establishment of a new peak national mental health consumer organisation.
Scoping study to inform the establishment of a new peak national mental health consumer organisation
This report presents the ideas, preferences and areas of consensus which emerged throughout the national scoping project for a new peak national mental health consumer organisation. It outlines an approach to organisational development which foreshadows a strong, viable and accountable organisation based on good governance principles and reflecting the need for an organisation which can deliver for and with mental health consumers nationwide.
Stage 2 focused on developing and evaluating strategies and resources to bring about constructive change in health service delivery to Aboriginal client and community groups.
This project, Sharing the true stories, was a response to the need to develop a more informed understanding of intercultural communication in Aboriginal health care and to identify strategies to improve communication.
Southern Health: Working with the Community
Southern Health established a Community Advisory Committee to provide advice to the Board and to ensure consumers, carers and the broader community play a participatory role in planning, service delivery and policy development. This article outlines the Committee's progress in integrating consumer and community participation as core business of the health service, with a particular emphasis on the development of a Community Participation Plan.
The aim of this guide is to develop consistency of practice by describing the issues that need to be considered to engage positively with Aboriginal consumers and Home and Community Care(HACC) Aboriginal services.
Talking About Teeth: The Experience of Dental Health Consumers
This article describes a consultation with dental health service users by the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne. The 2000 project asked consumers for their thoughts on the design of the then new hospital, their experiences of the services, and how best to consult consumers in the future.
Ten year roadmap for national mental health reform: draft
The draft roadmap details a commitment by governments to a long-term national reform plan for mental health to guide future action and investment across Australia over the next ten years.
The roadmap is a key component of the Australian Government's Delivering national mental health reform package of the 2011-12 budget. The draft has been developed with states and territories, informed by input from mental health experts, including mental health consumers and carers.
The Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Health Care
The Framework specifies three core principles for safe and high quality care. These are that care is consumer centred, driven by information, and organised for safety.
The Menzies-Nous Australian Health Survey 2010
To find out how Australians view their health care system, the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and The Nous Group (Nous) conducted a telephone survey of a representative sample of 1201 Australians in July 2010. The survey asked questions on the following subjects: Satisfaction with the health system, support for health reform, access to health care services, confidence in services, affordability of health care.
This is the second Australian Government Implementation Plan against the National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (NSFATSIH) 2003-2013.
The North Central Metropolitan Primary Care Partnership (NCMPCP)
The North Central Metropolitan Primary Care Partnership (NCMPCP) includes the Cities of Whittlesea, Darebin and Yarra in Melbourne. Its aim is to integrate service provision and facilitate partnerships between health service providers, including hospitals, specialist services and GP divisions. The NCMPCP website home page contains a comprehensive news section with information on conferences, training, service coordination, health promotion and 'big picture' issues. People can also register to be a NCMPCP member online
The Role of Emergency Departments as a ‘Safety Net’
Like most hospitals throughout Australia, Victoria's public hospital emergency departments are currently faced with the problem of managing rising demand for their services. This article argues that, although there needs to be an appropriate balance between primary and acute care, emergency departments play an important role as a ‘safety net’ in the health system, providing care to people who are unable to access services elsewhere, including care from general practitioners.
This document gives a brief explanation of the Victorian Audit of Surgical Mortality (VASM). This audit process is designed to provide valuable information for improving surgical outcomes.
Wanting to be Heard and Included: Carers’ Experiences of Hospitals
How included do carers feel when supporting someone while in hospital and after discharge? The growing practice to minimise hospital stays led Carers Queensland to explore carer experiences in dealing with hospital staff and managing their caring role post-discharge. This article reports the findings of a statewide study and implications for improved practices.
What is person-centred health care? A literature review
Barriers and enablers to person centred practice in this literature review. This literature review also discusses barriers specific to caring people with chronic disease, mental health, dementia, palliative care and neurological disorders.
These are important to know about so that you can consider them when you are action planning.
When the Hospital Makes You Sick
The chemicals used in hospitals cause symptoms in people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). However, the indoor air quality in hospitals can be improved to make hospitals more accessible and healthier environments for everyone. This article describes some of the problems people with MCS experience when in hospitals, either as patient or visitor, and outlines what can be done to make hospitals more accessible for people with MCS.
