Patient safety and quality of care

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We are proud of Ramsay's excellent record in delivering high quality patient care and managing risks

Safety is everyone’s business and the cornerstone of quality. Which is why we endorse accountability at all levels of Ramsay’s businesses. The Board and the Global Risk Management Committee embed strong leadership in safety and quality. This supports our people and accredited medical practitioners to provide safe, high-quality care and monitor and respond to the performance of Ramsay's patient care systems.

Clinical excellence

Our first Clinical Excellence Summit gathered doctors and executive leaders from across Ramsay to share ideas and best practice.

Workplace health and safety

The health and safety of our employees and anyone who visits our workplaces is taken seriously across Ramsay.

Our diverse and complex sites require a robust and innovative safety management system to ensure the safe working environment of our people while delivering high quality care to our patients. We believe that all injuries and industry-related diseases are preventable and to this end we continuously strive to make improvements in this area. Our dedication to safety is outlined in our Work Health and Safety Policy.

Accreditation

All our hospitals and facilities are accredited. To achieve accreditation, each facility must regularly meet quality and safety standards and pass stringent audit processes set by relevant government authorities and regulators.

An important part of high-quality standards in care is ensuring our doctors and visiting medical officers have appropriate credentials and are operating within their allowed scope of work. Our credentialling approach includes a thorough review of qualifications and experience and is assessed by advisory committees at each hospital.

Patient experience

Making sure our patients have a positive experience is extremely important to us. We are focused on our patient’s journey and understand there are many touchpoints that contribute to the overall experience, such as staff interactions and comfort.

We listen and respond to patient feedback and continue to score highly in several independent patient experience surveys. These measures are included in our Annual Report and Impact Report.

Clinical Governance

Clinical risk management
Making sure our services are safe and minimising risk of error:

- The Ramsay culture promotes and encourages staff to report incidents, risks and near misses
- Incident Management policy outlines the process for assessing and investigating incidents
- Ramsay clinical policies are developed in accordance with evidence-based best practice
- Clinical, risk and safety policies are reviewed on a regular basis and updated as required
- Ramsay has a strategy and policy for whistle-blowers.
Clinical effectiveness
Making sure that the clinical services we provide are effective:

- Quality and Safety Indicators are benchmarked and used to measure and monitor performance
- Quality plans are initiated when significant issues are flagged
- Serious clinical incidents are reported and investigated
- Clinicians are represented on the Governance Committee and expert clinical advisory panels
- High risk areas are regularly audited
- Quality performance and safety issues are reported to the Board
- All facilities meet the standards for accreditation.
Effective workforce
Making sure our staff are competent and up-to-date:

- Facility rules are available to all medical and allied health personnel
- Ramsay has a strict process for checking credentials, registration and scope of practice for all clinical disciplines
- Ramsay has targeted education and competency requirements in all clinical areas, with a particular focus on high-risk areas
- Staff are orientated and updated on quality and risk systems.
Consumer participation
Involving our patients and carers in their care:

- Consumers participate in our risk management and quality improvement activities
- Consumer complaints processes are managed in a timely way
- Consumer feedback from Ramsay Patient Satisfaction Surveys informs strategic and business planning
- Open disclosure between clinicians and consumers is actively promoted when things don’t go to plan.