Quality Improvement
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Quality objectives
Waikato DHB’s definition of quality is:
The provision of safe healthcare services which:
- are responsive to the patient's individual needs
- meet professional standards of clinical excellence
- meet national standards of healthcare service delivery
- are continuously monitored and improved.
Waikato DHB’s quality programme focuses on two key areas:
- quality assurance i.e. ensuring baseline quality standards are met
- quality improvement i.e. ensuring continuous improvement through quality projects, innovations, process improvement etc.
Waikato DHB is committed to implementing the initiatives specified by the national Quality Improvement Committee (QIC) and is leading the QIC Safety Improvement Programme.
All DHB staff, clinical leaders and managers are responsible for improving quality and participating in quality improvement initiatives and projects.
The DHB has many improvement projects under way, including:
- improving patient flow i.e. timeliness of healthcare delivery to patients as they move through community and hospital services
- Care Planning Project
- Discharge Planning Project
- Theatre Scheduling and Utilisation Project.
Quality and Patient Safety
This service includes the following:
- quality and risk planning, monitoring and reporting
- facilitation of selected quality improvement projects
- clinical audit
- infection control
- incident management
- serious event review using root cause analysis
- compliments and complaints management
- patient satisfaction surveys
- management of policies, procedures, protocols, guidelines
- certification and accreditation
- audit of key policy compliance
- provision of quality and risk education and forums to DHB staff and healthcare providers in the Midland region.
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Chief Operating Officer
Health Waikato
Mo Neville
Assistant Group Manager
Quality and Patient Safety
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Quality and Patient Safety:
Phone: (07) 858 0973
Fax: (07) 858 0974
If you would like to make a comment, compliment or complaint about our services, please read our Comments, Compliments, Complaints section of the web site where you will find the appropriate email contacts.
Certification
Certification is a legislative requirement under the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001. This Act requires all hospitals with more than five 24-hour beds, both public and private, to comply with the following standards:
- NZS 8134:2001 Health and Disability Sector Standards
- NZS 8142:2000 Infection Control
- NZS 8141:2001 Restraint Minimization and Safe Practice
- NZS 8143:2001 National Mental Health Standard.
All of Waikato DHB’s hospitals (Waikato, Thames, Tokoroa, Taumarunui and Te Kuiti), the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre mental health facility, continuing care facilities (Matariki in Te Awamutu and Rhoda Read in Morrinsville) and primary birthing units in Thames, Te Awamutu and Morrinsville have been audited and are certificated as being compliant with these standards.
Clinical audit
 Clinical audit is a quality assessment and improvement mechanism in which clinical practice is reviewed and compared with best practice. Its primary focus is to achieve improvements in healthcare outcomes for the patient, and effectiveness and efficiency of clinical care provided.
Each clinical service is expected to undertake clinical audits of its practice and to present the findings to the Clinical Board.
Each clinical service also undertakes mortality and morbidity reviews where patient deaths and cases where the patient’s care has not resulted in expected outcomes are reviewed and learned from.
New Zealand Incident Management System
The purpose of this programme is to achieve a nationally consistent approach to the management of healthcare incidents across the health and disability sector through the identification, investigation and analysis of incidents and acting upon them as (or before) they occur to minimise the change of (re)occurrence of untoward outcomes in healthcare.
Primary objectives:
The programme is intended to achieve:
- reduced harm to patients,their families/whanau and to clinicians
- a culture and environment within which patient safety is paramount and
- implementation of an information system that will support the culture and assist providers in achieving the above.
For more detail, please refer to the NZ Incident Managment System website.
In the news
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