Quality and Safety


Issues around best practice and the quality and safety of health services have become a major concern in recent years for providers and consumers, not only in Australia and New Zealand but across developed healthcare systems. There is an increasing body of literature about strategies, models and approaches to assist clinicians in improving clinical practice, and increasing pressure to implement them.

The College has an important role in fostering an environment that rewards the practice of evidence-based health care. One way we can do this is by providing Fellows and Trainees with the practical tools of quality improvement while traversing the appropriate educational framework.

The Quality Expert Advisory Group (EAG) is the College's peak quality and safety group. The Quality EAG is responsible for strengthening the capacity of the RACP to contribute to the development of quality and safety improvement measures and their implementation. The Quality EAG provides leadership within the College to support trainees and Fellows in applying quality principles to improve health outcomes.

They provide advice on safety and quality to the College appropriate to the training and CPD activities of the College, utilising the central concepts of clinical practice improvement and evidence based practice to enable clinicians to embed best practice routinely in clinical care. They also provide advice to external groups and agencies such as the Australian Commission for Quality and Safety in Health Care, and the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.

The predominant focus of the Quality EAG is to develop high level policy and strategies for dissemination throughout the College Fellowship and beyond, with the imperatives of garnering wide physician and broader health system support for ensuring high quality practice, and emphasising the role of the College in making sure physicians are safe and practising well. The Group also seeks to play a role at ‘ground level', acting as a supporting and co-ordinating body in implementing change at the clinical practice level.

To contact the Quality EAG please email: quality@racp.edu.au

Key policy areas for the Quality EAG include:-

  • Clinical Performance: Credentialing and scope of practice, re-certification, maintenance of professional standards, clinical performance framework, clinical indicators for medical subspecialties, accreditation, legal and regulatory issues in clinical performance monitoring
  • Models of Care: Strengthening the role of consultant physicians to improve systems of care for better patient outcomes and experience
  • Adverse Events: role of physicians in reducing adverse events, open disclosure, use of clinical registries, clinical relevance of administrative data in assessing and improving quality of care

Submissions

The College has made the following submissions on quality and safety issues:

Old Projects and Programs

Submission to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
on Recognising and Responding to Clinical Deterioration:
Draft Consensus Statement
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