News

Mildura Base Hospital achieves new accreditation standards

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:58:00

Mildura Base Hospital has achieved its first step towards accreditation under a new national set of standards on hospital quality and safety.

The hospital’s latest accreditation assessment was completed last month, and, for the first time, was measured under the new National Safety and Quality Health Service standards.
Quality Co-ordinator at the hospital, Gayle Nichols said the new national criteria ensured higher standards of quality for health service provision in Australia.
“There are 10 standards that hospitals must achieve compliance on under the NSQHS, covering the safety and quality of systems and services in both medical and administrative areas of the hospital,” Ms Nichols said.
“The standards provide a clear statement about the level of care consumers can expect from health services generally, and our accreditation is an endorsement of the quality service the community can expect from Mildura Base Hospital.”
The accreditation process considers the hospital’s standards in: governance; partnering with consumers; preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections; medication safety; patient identification and procedure matching; clinical handover; blood and blood products, preventing and managing pressure injuries; recognising and responding to clinical deterioration; and preventing falls and harm from falls.
Under the new accreditation model, hospitals are required to be accredited to NSQHS standards from January 1, 2013.  As a result, the latest mid-cycle audit of Mildura Base Hospital required assessment against the first three of the new national standards.  The comprehensive assessment against all 10 of the new standards will be done at MBH’s next three-year full audit, due in 2015.
Mildura Base Hospital chief executive officer Dane Huxley said the hospital’s good results were a direct result of the diligence and commitment of staff to defined hospital standards.
“The transition to the new National criteria requires a higher focus on quality and safety, and the only way we can achieve another year of good results is through the attentiveness of our staff,” Mr Huxley said.
“It’s recognition of the well-developed approach to quality, safety and improvement we have adopted across the organisations.”