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Older adults report Quality of Life (QoL) as a central goal for aged care, with 93% of Australians agreeing that it should be mandatory for providers to publicly report on QoL measures. Quality of life is also considered by older Australians as a valuable indicator for comparing aged care services. But it’s still not routinely measured and reported in clinical governance datasets.

The Code of Conduct for Aged Care describes the behaviour expected of aged care providers, their governing persons (e.g. board members and Chief Executive Officers) and aged care workers. The Code gives the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) the power to deal with behaviour that is not consistent with the Code.

Governing bodies play a critical role in aged care – they set the direction for, and culture of, the organisation, directly influencing the safety and quality of care provided to consumers.

It has been reported that complaints relating to registered health practitioners increased over the 2021/2022 financial year. Further (and separately), in aged care, there was a total of 2,767 complaints made in the first quarter of 2022 and 2,642 complaints in the second quarter. Both these figures had also trended upwards compared with the corresponding numbers in 2021 (with 2,313 in the first quarter of 2021 and 2,261 in the second quarter).

The term clinical governance was first coined in the context of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service - specifically, in a white paper endorsed by then Prime Minister Tony Blair entitled ‘The new NHS: modern, dependable.’ Now, 25 years later – where are we at?
 

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.

Join Consumer Health Forum (CHF) CEO, Leanne Wells, Senior Advocate for the Council for Intellectual Disability, Jim Simpson, and Chief Executive of COTA Australia, Ian Yates to discuss the active and growing role of consumers within our health, aged care and disability sectors.

The concept of ‘burnout’ was first described in the early 1970s, and has attracted media attention in recent years specifically in the context of healthcare. It is known to be particularly prevalent within certain demographics, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Burnout is not unique to acute health services, with evidence of its prevalence seen in other care sectors such as aged care and disability.

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.