Quality of health care policies in Australia

This chapter reviews the policies and practices in place to measure and improve the quality and safety of health care in Australia. Overwhelmingly, there appears to be national consensus in making quality and safety a policy priority. This is marked by an improving culture of transparency and a move towards compulsory standards and hospital accreditation. This work needs to be evaluated and refined to ensure that quality improvement evolves from measurement to change management. While much of the attention has been on hospitals, quality in primary health care has received less consideration. More challenging for Australia is a highly complex health system managed by two levels of government, and a mix of services delivered through the public and private sectors. Adding to the complexity is national inconsistencies in policy and performance measurement, although efforts are being made to improve harmonisation. Clearer government accountability and more explicitly defined roles between central and local authorities will help Australia overcome some of these impediments.