Measurement and Quality Improvement

Quality. It’s something we all strive for. It’s the optimum level of care experienced by patients.

‘Measurement and Quality Improvement’ is the second component of Patient Safety and Quality Systems, as outlined by the Australian Government’s National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHSS).

Why Do We Have Patient Safety and Quality Systems?

As part of the governance process of a health service patient safety and quality systems are created to advance the safety and the quality of patients’ care (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care 2017).

The intent of measurement and quality improvement is to implement effective quality improvement systems that operate across the entire organisation.

The public’s perception of quality in healthcare has assessable consequences. There is growing evidence to indicate that people will avoid using services they deem as lacking in quality (Hanefeld et al. 2017) and that this is ‘a barrier to universal health coverage’, regardless of physical access to care (Berendes 2011).