Access a range of articles and resources written by clinical governance experts and search our carefully curated list of safety and quality journal articles and reports.
AICG articles, resources and curated journals and reports are available to all AICG members. Members must be logged in, in order to access all content. Users who are not AICG members will only be able to access publicly available articles.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (Royal Commission) recommended that every approved provider of aged care (whether delivering personal or clinical care) adopts a digital care management system, including an electronic medication management system, and that this should be an ‘immediate focus’ (Recommendation 68 of the Final Report).
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety noted in its Final Report, presented on 26 February 2021, that aged care ‘should be able to deliver compassionate and kind care built on respectful relationships’. Person-centred care (or ‘consumer-centred’ care) was already central to the way aged care was expected to be delivered, under the Aged Care Quality Standards which have been in effect since 1 July 2019.
_1-sml.jpg)
Clinical governance can be supported through effective regulatory design - and setting minimum standards. However, clinical governance is not just about compliance.
It has been acknowledged in the context of aged care reforms that an ‘improved approach to regulating aged care will go beyond compliance to foster a culture and practice of continuous improvement to deliver higher quality care that better supports the wellbeing of senior Australians.’ Indeed, clinical governance is aspirational, and a culture of continuous improvement should be embedded in any care organisation - not only at the point of care through to management, but also within the governing body.
Clinical governance (the concept of which emerged in the 1990s in the context of health care) has traditionally attracted less attention in the care of people living with a disability, with a noticeable dearth of research specific to this sector. Such oversight has been highlighted in the recent draft report by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission), which inquired into the Federal Government's approach to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to disability care residents and workers.
Clinical governance has attracted fresh limelight in recent times in the context of a pandemic, intense public scrutiny of our aged care and disability systems, and concomitant acceleration of digital health.
