Safety and quality

Abstract

Abstract

Generic obstetric database systems are unreliable for reporting the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

“…Accurate data that can be effectively accessed and used are vital to improving the quality and safety of outcomes in health care 1 . This statement can be applied to any area of health, including the short‐, intermediate‐ and long‐term sequelae for women suffering from the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP).…”

Peer review of adverse events – a perspective on Macarthur

“…The major works quantifying the scale of adverse events are now ten years old, and yet progress has been slow in using this information to improve patient safety (Institute of Medicine 1999). It has been argued that tolerance of risk by the community and those working in the health system is too high (Smyth 2002). The events in Macarthur provide a powerful incentive to correct this situation.…”

Mature use of casemix — are we there yet?

“…1 The implementation of casemix in Australia can be traced back to the demonstration projects in the mid 1980s, and over a decade has passed since the earliest implementations of casemix-based funding in Victoria and South Australia. It is timely then to consider the progress we have made and to ask whether we are using the casemix tool in the best way.…”

“…There is much more that can be done in the quality area by using the available data rather than waiting for it to improve. 1 It may be argued that evidence is needed of the use of casemix information in making clinical decisions transparent and accountable before we can say that we are using the information to its full potential. However, there is a paucity of literature on this topic, perhaps because of a reluctance to publish sensitive information.…”