Resources

The tools provide audits and information for assessing the quality of end-of-life care to support care process improvement.

The importance of consumer advocacy in person-centred healthcare is growing. In Australia, the role of the "Consumer Representative" - often a current or past patient of the health service, or carer - is to improve service planning, healthcare design, service evaluation and advocate for patients and their families' needs, improve. As consumer partnerships are evolving, so too is the role of the Consumer Representative. Understanding how this role is evolving is key to supporting it to be useful and effective.

The critical importance of complaint handling is as strong as ever. Being able to raise a grievance or complaint is a fundamental human right. Engaging effectively and respectfully with complaints is about engaging effectively and respectfully with the community and being willing to improve the quality of care.

Compassionate care is central to person-centred care. Along with the safety and cost reductions associated with person-centred care, placing the person at the centre of their care and keeping them informed is the right thing to do.

This Guide is a reference tool to support practitioners in understanding the complex ethical and legal requirements surrounding informed decision-making about healthcare.

Consumer involvement in our care organisations ensures a measurable increase in knowledge and skill, enhances problem-solving, introduces new ways of looking at and doing things; and ultimately gives organisations greater adaptability in a changing environment.

The Experience-Based Co-Design Toolkit provides a convenient reference to equip those working in the health sector with the tools and approaches to bring consumers and health workers together in an authentic and equal partnership to co-design care to deliver an improved experience.

We know that compassion and alleviating pain and symptoms generally feature high on consumers’ wish lists. But do healthcare providers feel that the latter is more useful than the former?

Care transitions, whether intrahospital or discharge to home or another care setting, are fraught with ‘Swiss cheese holes.’ As consumers move through different assessments, professions, wards, plans, and even funding structures, the danger of poor quality care, communication breakdown and consumer dissatisfaction is high. The authors argue that better incorporation of patients and carers in rounds, as done in children’s hospitals, can prevent some of these problems.