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We spend a lot of time on root cause analysis (RCA) – and have done it for 20 years or so. But key clinical risks remain stubbornly consistent.

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).

Governance, leadership and culture together form one pillar of the National Model Clinical Governance Framework.  ‘Culture’ in particular is a somewhat nebulous concept - what does it really mean, and what is its role in clinical governance?

Effective management of incidents is critical to effective clinical governance and will enable you to manage risks to consumers and improve the quality of care and services you provide.  By systematically recording and investigating incidents, you are better placed to identify trends and issues and to pursue continuous improvement

Reporting is not just ‘red tape’ – it is an essential part of clinical governance. Why? Because unless we observe and assess care outcomes and experiences on an ongoing basis - which reporting enables – we cannot effectively identify risks, emerging risks, or areas for improvement.