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Surgical site infections remain a problem despite many decades of research and practice change to eliminate those that are preventable. 

Approximately 0.5% to 3% of surgical patients develop an infection. Compared with patients undergoing surgery who do not have a surgical site infection, these patients are hospitalized approximately 7 to 11 days longer.   As we know, longer hospital stays increase the risk for patients and reduce hospital efficiency and effectiveness. Infections are the leading cause of re-admissions following surgery and can add thousands of dollars to the cost of an admission. 
 

Technological advances have opened new possibilities for improving patient safety. Using technology to digitize healthcare processes has the potential to increase standardisation and efficiency of clinical workflows, and to reduce errors and cost across all healthcare settings. However, if technological approaches are designed or implemented poorly, the burden on care providers can increase.

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.

Handy template on the Department of Health and Aged Care website for documenting standard procedures.

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).

Robust clinical trials drive learning, innovation and hence continuous improvement in evidence-based care.  Not only do clinical trials promote good clinical governance in this way, but good clinical governance must underpin clinical trials. 

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 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.

What does safety II really mean in practice? How can your organisation develop high performing safety II teams?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cast a shadow over the health of the world, we continue to learn about clinical governance at scale. We have previously drawn analogies to Australian government responses with clinical governance principles - however the parallels don’t stop there.  Across the world, the economic impact of the pandemic has been palpable and is illustrative of the co-dependent relationship between health and money, where better health outcomes are known to correlate with better economic outcomes.