Celebrating 10 years of clinical care standards

It is 10 years since the first national Clinical Care Standard was introduced by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission).

Over the past decade, the Commission has released 19 Clinical Care Standards.

The first Clinical Care Standard – on antimicrobial stewardship – was released in November 2014; while the most recent, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was released in October 2024. More standards are in development. A 2023 evaluation of the Clinical Care Standards focusing on antimicrobial stewardship, delirium, and hip fracture found 96% of respondents considered the standards relevant to care, and 92% of respondents who had implemented the standards reported improvement in the quality of care.

Each Clinical Care Standard includes a set of evidence-based statements describing the care that people can expect to be offered for a specific clinical condition, treatment, procedure or clinical pathway, no matter where they are treated in Australia. They are developed in consultation with clinicians, consumers and service providers and implemented nationally.

The indicators within each standard are available for data collection for ACHS and CIP members through the Metrik portal. Please contact us at pos@achs.org.au to activate this option.