The ability to provide safe and quality healthcare to Australian Consumers is a fundamental process within all healthcare institutions (Steinwachs & Hughes, 2008). Such processes require the input of functional strategies at both an organizational and nursing level, in order to achieve desired health outcomes (Steinwachs & Hughes, 2008). The collection and assessment of data is an integral step within this process, as this allows for weaknesses to be identified and improvements to be made in the delivery of care (Clarke & Donaldson, 2008). The following essay will discuss the core business of health institutions within Australia. It will highlight the importance of process data and outcome data, in order to ensure quality and safety in healthcare. The collection of process and outcome data on the effectiveness of completing medication reconciliation during patient care, in order to reduce medication errors, will be drawn upon as an example to demonstrate this understanding.
Within today’s society, every person has a right to access safe, cost effective, quality and evidenced based health care within Australia (ACOSQHC , 2015).
The Quality of
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Safety in care not only impacts patients and families who utilise health care services, but also impacts the organisation as a whole (Landgren, 2008). Overwhelming evidence has found that failure to meet quality standards of care may result in negative outcomes, such as increased costs for organisations, permanent injury, increased length of stay for patients and even death (Steinwachs & Hughes, 2008). Furthermore, failure to meet standards of care puts the organisation’s reputation in jeopardy, as this reflects the standard of care that people would expect from such health institutions (Steinwachs & Hughes,
The Australian healthcare system has been evolving since the beginning of the colonisation of Australia. Today, Australia has an extremely efficient healthcare system although it still has several issues. The influencing factors, structure, and current issues of the Australian healthcare system will be throughly discussed and explained in this essay.
Patient safety one of the driving forces of healthcare. Patient safety is defined as, “ the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of healthcare or as the prevention of errors and adverse events caused by the provision of healthcare rather than the patient’s underlying disease process. (Kangasniemi, Vaismoradi, Jasper, &Turunen, 2013)”. It was just as important in the past as it is day. Our healthcare field continues to strive to make improvement toward safer care for patients across the country.
“Everyone has an important role to play in achieving healthcare rights and contributing to safe, high quality care. Genuine partnerships between those families and carers of people receiving care and those providing it lead to the best possible outcomes.” (Western NSW Local Health District 2012).
The Scottish Patient Safety Programme was implemented in 2008 and by 2012, 8500 patient’s lives were saved (Nursing Management, 2013). In 2012 the programme was extended to 2015 with the aim of further reducing the risk of
Every health professional has a legal obligation to patients. Nurses as part of the health care team share an important role in the quality and safe delivery of patient care. They have the major responsibility for the development, implementation and continuous practice of policies and procedures of an organisation. It is therefore essential that every organization offer unwavering encouragement and resources to support their staff to perform their duty of care in every patient. On the other hand, high incidences of risk in the health care settings have created great concerns for healthcare organizations. Not only they have effects on patients, but also they project threat to the socioeconomic status. For this reason, it is expected that all health care professionals will engage with all elements of risk management to ensure quality and safe patient delivery. This paper will critically discuss three (3) episodes of care from the case study Health Care Complaints Commission [HCCC] v Jarrett [2013] Nursing and Midwifery Professional Standards Committee of New South Wales [NSWNMPSC] 3 in relation to Registered Nurse’s [RN] role as a leader in the health care team, application of clinical risk management [CRM] in health care domains, accountability in relation to clinical governance [CG], quality improvement and change management practices and the importance of continuing professional development in preparation for transition to the role of RN.
The Australian health care system is a highly functioning and accessible system based on universal principles of access and equity. In this essay I will discuss the historical evolution and current structure of our health system, identifying current health service models of delivery and look at its strengths, weaknesses, policies and health priorities currently in Australia. I will discuss the roles of government and non-government health services in service provision and funding sources of Australian health. We will get a better insight of the role of standards for residential aged care and look into a broad range of professions that consumers may engage with in health service delivery, their roles and functions of each profession.
This essay will discuss the structure of Australia’s healthcare system, known as Medicare. It will also discuss the role of the Government and Non-Government agencies, and Medicare’s strengths and weaknesses. It will also address the health and illness issues that aboriginal and people from overseas face, and also the significance of implementing best practice and quality management
There are many facets of the Australian Health care System. It doesn’t just include the local doctor; there are many other services that are a part of a larger network.
"To continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value” (Jointcommission.org, 2015). These requirements are regimented in the National Patient Safety Goals and are enforced via surveys and internal inspections to ensure that healthcare institutions abide by the safety mechanisms put in place to facilitate the optimal patient outcomes and environments.
“The Australian health care system is a highly functioning and accessible system based on universal principles of access and equity”.
The Health care systems in Australia have one of the most affordable, accessing and comprehensive in the world. Access is the right to enter into and able to use the health care system. Australians have enablers and barriers that may affect their health care system. Barriers have limited or, no access to health care as consumers can have poor understanding of how to access health services, language difficulties for instance medical jargon’s or not understanding English at all, financial crisis and lack of health information. There are many accesses to the health care system for instance, GP’s, public hospitals, specialised care, community-based services and other private sector health professionals. Equity is the Australian population has
Key Historical, Key political and Key socio-cultural influence that have shaped healthcare access in contemporary Australian society.
In 2011, even before the Francis report was published, around 1000 frontline clinicians from strategic health authorities took part in a safety express pilot. The pilot was designed to test innovative way to achieve a reduction in patient harm. However, one of the programme’s successes was a simple audit tool, the ‘Patient Safety Thermometer’ (Buckley, 2014). The NHS Patient Safety Thermometer (PST) has been designed to be used by all frontline healthcare professionals. Power et al (2012), indicates that the PST can be used to take a ‘snapshot measure’ of pressure ulcers, harm from falls, urinary tract infection in patients with catheters and VTE. Through the use of minimal set data, the PST helps signal where individuals, teams and organisations might need to focus more on detailed measurement, training and improvement (Power et al, 2012). It should be noted that the NHS Patient Safety Thermometer measures prevalence, not incidence, therefore it is of benefit to understand the difference between these and how these harms are measured in the tool ( Table 4). The PST provides a ‘temperature check’ on harm that can be used alongside other measure of harm to measure local and system progress in providing a care environment that is free of harm (NHS, 2013). Power et al (2012) states that the NHS incentivized the use of the PST within the NHS operating framework of 2012/13. For the first time, the NHS used the
In recent years, governments are searching for ways to deliver the equity, efficiency, cost-effectiveness healthcare services to maintain and improve their health systems (WHO, 2004). The aim of equal access to health care for all population groups is the common target for many health care systems. The Australian health care system provides resources on the equal access of a mixed private and public funding system which covers the entire population.
In today’s health care system, “quality” and “safety” are one in the same when it comes to patient care. As Florence Nightingale described our profession long ago, it takes work and vigilance to ensure we are doing the best we can to care for our patients. (Mitchell, 2008)