Safety and Quality Roles and Responsibilities in Your Organisation
Published: 14 April 2024
Published: 14 April 2024
Every staff member of a health service organisation is, in some way, responsible for ensuring that safe and high-quality care is delivered to clients.
The organisation’s role is to support its workforce to understand and perform their designated safety and quality roles and responsibilities (ACSQHC 2018).
Safety is the practice of preventing errors and adverse outcomes in healthcare, while quality refers to the likelihood of positive client outcomes and how well the organisation works in tandem with current professional expertise (ACSQHC 2013).
Safety and quality can be defined further using the STEEEP framework:
Safe | Avoiding harm to patients and keeping staff safe. |
Timely | Preventing delays that impede the flow of care. |
Effective | Delivering evidence-based care only to those who are likely to benefit. |
Equitable | Providing equal access to care regardless of gender, income, ethnicity, location etc. |
Efficient | Using resources sustainably. |
Patient-centred | Delivering respectful, responsive care that considers individual clients’ preferences, values and needs. |
(Adapted from West Moreton Health 2020)
Together, safety and quality practices aim to ensure that clients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time and cost (ACSQHC 2018).
Safety and quality roles and responsibilities are outlined in Actions 1.25 and 1.26 of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, under Standard 1: Clinical Governance.
These actions aim to ensure that staff are supported and supervised to appropriately fulfil their designated safety and quality roles and responsibilities. Providers are required to:
(ACSQHC 2018, 2019)
Standard 2: The Organisation - Outcome 2.2: Quality and safety culture (Action 2.2.2) of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards requires an aged care organisation’s governing body to prioritise the safety, health and wellbeing of older people and staff (ACQSC 2024).
The governing body is responsible for:
(ACQSC 2024)
Safety roles and responsibilities within an organisation can be seen as a hierarchical structure wherein:
(West Moreton Health 2020)
More specific roles and responsibilities should be outlined in the organisation’s policies and procedures, as well as in individual staff members’ position descriptions (West Moreton Health 2020).
To ensure safety and quality roles and responsibilities are upheld effectively, organisations should:
(ACSQHC 2018)
One key component of safety and quality is supervising junior staff to ensure they appropriately fulfil their roles and responsibilities. The aim is for junior staff to increase their competency and eventually become independent. Supervision should include regular performance feedback and reviews (ACSQHC 2019).
Those responsible for supervising junior staff should:
(ACSQHC 2019)
All clients expect and deserve safe and high-quality care. This responsibility falls upon every staff member, and the health service organisation is expected to ensure individual roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Furthermore, the health service organisation must support staff to understand and appropriately uphold their designated roles and responsibilities.
Question 1 of 3
Finish the sentence. Safety is…