Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service (WBHHS) has released its 2019-2020 Quality of Care Report highlighting a range of indicators that continue to meet or exceed state and national benchmarks.
WBHHS says the release of the new report demonstrates strong performance on safety and quality measures.
The report is now publicly available, providing the community with information about WBHHS’s performance data, consumer feedback and service improvements.
Wide Bay Hospital and Health Board Chair Peta Jamieson said the report was part of WBHHS’s commitment to increase community awareness, strengthen health service accountability and drive quality improvement.
“The Quality of Care Report demonstrates WBHHS’s ongoing commitment to providing the best possible outcomes for the patients and communities we serve,” Ms Jamieson said.
“While the report measures performance against key measures, it also explains why these measures are important – which helps the broader community determine how WBHHS is delivering quality care to its patients.
“That level of accountability is really important because it helps drive WBHHS teams to build upon their strengths and also identify areas where we need to improve.”
Ms Jamieson added that the report also highlighted the positive outcomes of increasing the involvement of consumers in the oversight of WBHHS services.
“One of WBHHS’s biggest areas of recent progress is the involvement of consumers in virtually every aspect of operations,” she said.
“WBHHS has established new consumer groups, involved consumers in committees and decision-making processes, and consulted with them on new services, models of care and publications.
“Our consumers are simultaneously our most important partners in, and beneficiaries of, our services – and we thank them for helping to us to be a stronger organisation.”
WBHHS Chief Executive Debbie Carroll said the Quality of Care Report revealed strong performance across a range of measures, with highlights including:
• Immunisation rates for Wide Bay children of 95.6% for one-year-olds and 96.3% for five-year-olds – well above Queensland Health benchmark of 90%
• 100% diagnostic imaging reporting rate, ensuring patients are provided with the most timely and appropriate clinical options
Meeting the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) benchmarks for Hospital-Acquired Complications (or HACs) across all 14 indicators
• Pressure injuries rate of 0.96 per 10,000 separations, well within the ACSQHC benchmark of less than 9.8 per 10,000 separations
• WBHHS’s comprehensive falls prevention program and active promotion of No Falls Month leading to the service meeting the ACSQHC benchmark for falls incidents
• Resolving 91% of complaints within the target of 35 days, well above the Queensland Health benchmark of 80%.
“One of the best aspects of the report is how WBHHS met all 14 Australian standards for Hospital-Acquired Complications, including an incredibly low rate for pressure injuries of just of 0.96 per 10,000 patient separations,” Ms Carroll said.
“We’re also pleased to see better reporting of clinical incidents where there is no or minimal harm. Reporting these incidents helps our team to learn from an event before any or much harm has been caused, and to take action that will reduce the likelihood of future incidents from occurring.”
Ms Carroll congratulated all members of the WBHHS team for their commitment to maintaining the high quality of care reflected in the report.
“It really does take a broad range of staff members working diligently to ensure every single one of our patients has the best possible outcome while they’re in our care – so I thank all members of our team for their continuing commitment and hard work that has led to these outcomes,” she said.
The Quality of Care Report is also available on the WBHHS website.
