Dear colleagues,
Our Metro North fit testing program has exceeded 7400 tests, including Metro North staff and our frontline COVID-19 response colleagues such as Queensland Police Service.
Thank you to our great Clinical Skills Development Service team who have been coordinating most of the fit testing. I’d like to specifically thank project officer Megan Husband who got everything up and running and Belinda Faulkner who will continue to oversee the program.
Comprehensive Care Standard (Standard 5)
The National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS) Standard 5 Comprehensive Care has been reviewed this month across Metro North by the Clinical Governance, Safety, Quality and Risk team.
The intent of the Comprehensive Care standard (Standard 5) is to ensure that the patient receives care that is planned and coordinated around their physical, mental, and cognitive health needs. The standard aims to ensure that a patient’s goals and risks of harm are identified so that comprehensive care plans can be developed and delivered to meet their needs. The standard also identifies that patients should continue to receive comprehensive and compassionate care at the end of their life (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2017).
The quality and safety review undertaken outlines the relationship between the key components of the Comprehensive Care standard and how Metro North implements systems and processes of governance, and quality improvement methods to provide continuous and collaborative care, while working in partnership with patients, carers and families to adequately identify, assess, and manage patients’ clinical risks, and establish their preferences of care.
The Comprehensive Care standard is informed by four overarching criteria. These criteria provide the framework for our Metro North reporting and include:
- Clinical governance and quality improvement to support comprehensive care,
- Developing the comprehensive care plan,
- Delivering comprehensive care,
- Minimising patient harm.
Some key patient quality and safety improvements achieved under standard 5 in Metro North include a continued downward trend for the number of coded stage 3 hospital acquired pressure injuries, with a 33% decrease in the period April 2020 to March 2021 when compared to 2019/2020. Pressure injury prevention and management strategies include skin inspection within eight hours of admission, pressure injury risk assessment within eight hours, and a pressure injury prevention plan documented, all remain consistently above 92% for the past 2 years.
Rates of Hospital Acquired Malnutrition incidences have decreased by 49% compared to the previous year. Health Roundtable data shows most directorates are performing better than their peer group median.
This is an amazing achievement and my thanks to all clinical staff who have worked so hard to achieve this great quality improvement in health care outcomes for our patients across Metro North.
Regards,
Michele