The World Health Organization checklist was created to start our work and build a foundation of safety for our patients. It established the important role of teamwork and communication in providing high quality safe care.
A patient story of preventable harm. Every now and then a personal story comes along to shock us. It forces us to shake our heads and demand an answer. It calls us to action.
The mental health and addiction sector is aware that the goal we have set of eliminating seclusion is ambitious. Internationally there is evidence that seclusion causes harm to those who receive it, and it is recognised as contravening basic human rights. Yet we know the practice still continues in many of our district health board in-patient units today.
The Commission recently announced that our mental health and addiction quality improvement team will work alongside Te Pou, the national KPI programme and DHB mental health and addiction services to achieve the aspirational goal of Zero seclusion: towards eliminating seclusion by 2020.
This article provides a summary of an interim evaluation of the surgical site infection imporovement programme, and makes the point that a key aspect of many quality improvement programmes is that their success can’t be evaluated over a short time-span.
Shaun McNeil, the Commission's national consumer engagement advisor mental health and addictions, shares his thoughts on challenges for the sector.
Dr Susan Wells writes about the importance of models such as the Model for Understanding Success in Quality (MUSIQ).
Dr Susan Wells reflects on the importance of strong primary care systems.
