The second edition of the National Safety and Quality in Healthcare (NSQHS)- Comprehensive Care Standard requires hospitals to provide person-centred, coordinated and comprehensive care that meets their individual needs and reduces the risks of harm associated with healthcare. These harms, known as hospital acquired complications, include delirium, falls, pressure injuries, malnutrition and incontinence. It is well-recognised that these complications impact patients’ significantly, including increased mortality and morbidity, reduced quality of life, reduced function, longer length of stays and distress to patients and care partners. In addition, these complications place significant burden on the healthcare system through increased costs of admission, increased medical complexity and considerable financial penalties.
Comprehensive assessment and care planning (CACP) is crucial to identify and mitigate potential patient complications. Due to inadequate integration of patient assessments and care planning pathways within QH (both at a local and system level), there is often poor compliance with meeting the requirements of the Comprehensive Care Standard. Identified issues include:
- variations in risk screening/assessment tools used across digital and non-digital facilities
- ambiguity in requirements for various clinical areas
- differing workflows across the patient journey and transitions of care resulting in repetition
- lack of patient and care partner engagement and input into their goals of care and care plans
This frequently results in care plans which are poorly aligned to patient priorities, as well as inefficient staff workflows, and risk assessments which are seen as burdensome by patients and staff. This does not support coordinated and person-centred care.
