National Standards Week Success

07 Apr 2022

After much preparation and hard work, National Standards Week has come to a close.

At the official summation event, the Surveyors disclosed that across the 8 National Standards as set by the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care (ACQSHC), across St Vincent’s Health Network SVH, SJH, SHH and TKCC, there were no standards or actions that were not met. In short, this means, the Survey team will recommend to the Governing Council of the ACHS and the ACQSHC and the Clinical Excellence Commission as the state regulator, that our accreditation status is confirmed.

Given all the hard work that we’ve done these past few years, this is a wonderful outcome, but what so pleasing was their recognition of how our health service not only meets, but aims to exceed in our safety and quality endeavours - how we go above and beyond.

In naming just some of the highlights they witnessed during their time with us, the Surveyors’ praise ranged from the Accelerate program in Sacred Heart, recognising and acting on early deterioration, to the “amazing” kitchen service at St Joseph’s, to our support for the homeless, to the implementation of PECC and PANDA, to Pharmacy discharge being “the best I’ve ever seen”. You can watch the full summation below.

But what they mentioned several times throughout the event, was the “incredible” commitment from our staff to our organisation and our patients, and the overall ethos and hospitality that underpins our entire health service. I’m so proud they were witness to how things are done, the St Vincent’s Way.

The surveyors will now draft their full report which we expect to see in a few weeks.

Thank you to executive sponsor Andrea Herring, all the Standard Leads, and the Patient Safety and Quality team for all your hard work, as well as all the teams who hosted visits and staff who have participated in this survey.

And special thanks to Daena Wilson, our SVHNS National Standards Manager who has worked tirelessly to guide our Network through this survey period.

In addressing our staff, the surveyors finished by saying that “your service is an absolute credit to you”.