Foreword

On behalf of the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), I present the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report 20th Edition 2011-2018. The report examines data sourced from a broad range of clinical specialty areas and contains important information regarding key aspects of healthcare delivery for members of ACHS, in addition to healthcare organisations worldwide. As in previous years, the 20th Edition of the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report provides key points on significant trends, strata differences and outlier effects between 2011 and 2018 for a broad range of clinical indicators. The report also includes commentary by professionals from the respective healthcare specialties to provide context to the complex and ever-changing healthcare environment. The Australasian Clinical Indicator Report provides the reader with an insight into the standards of healthcare in Australia and New Zealand and provides individual healthcare organisations with the potential to improve quality and safety within their facility.

In developing the Clinical Indicator sets and the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report, ACHS has proudly collaborated with more than 40 Australasian medical colleges, societies, and associations. The opportunity has been provided to these organisations to contribute comments within their specialist area for each of the 20 Indicator sets, which now contain 332 individual clinical indicators. Data from 656 healthcare organisations have been provided, and subsequently validated by University of Newcastle statisticians.

A number of working party meetings of the relevant providers including a consumer representative were held through the year to support the continuous development of the clinical indicator sets and ensure they remain current and valid. In 2018, clinical indicator sets that were reviewed included Day Patient, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Hospital-Wide and Mental Health. Dr Brian Collopy has once again written the feature report contained within the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report. This year’s feature report was co-authored by Professor Geoffrey Dobb, ACHS Council, ACHS Board Member and AMA Representative. The feature report presents an overview of the Clinical Indicator program database.

The ACHS provides the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report to key health industry bodies, Federal and State Governments, our members and surveyors, and other interested parties. It is pleasing to note that the number of clinical indicators demonstrating a desirable trend outweigh the number with an undesirable one by a factor of five. The report is available to download from the ACHS website via: www.achs.org.au/ publications-resources/australasian-clinical-indicator-report/. A full retrospective report is also available on the website, providing detailed results for each clinical indicator set.

To conclude, I have confidence that the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report 20th Edition 2011-2018 will provide you with valuable knowledge of our healthcare industry for which it was intended. In providing this insight, I should like to extend my appreciation to all the collaborating colleges, associations, and societies. Their support of this Clinical Indicator Program allows us to continue our efforts to improve healthcare standards in Australia and internationally.

Prof Len Notaras AM ACHS President November 2019