IHI BMJ International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare 2023: People Powered Change

Another great turn out at this year’s Forum with our ACHS Speakers delivering some insightful sessions.

Healthcare professionals from around the world attended the 2023 IHI BMJ International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare held in Melbourne. 

The forum themed ‘People powered change - a healthier life, a fairer system, a sustainable future’, showcased regional perspectives while also bringing in international expertise to spark meaningful conversations around the pressing topics in healthcare including health equity, co-creating care, emerging technologies and sustainability. 

This year's forum featured a strong line up of speakers including Dr Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Ms Shannon Cohn, Producer & Director, Project Endo and Mr Lloyd Provost, Statistician and Senior Improvement Advisor, Associates in Process Improvement, Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Over two days, ACHS had the opportunity to deliver various sessions on topics that demonstrated some of the innovative approaches to transforming healthcare quality and safety.

 
Pictured: Associate Professor Bernie Harrison and Mr Lloyd Provost

This interactive workshop titled “Co-design for impact: Utilising consumer’s lived experience to improve quality and safety” was run by Associate Professor Bernie Harrison, Director of ACHS Improvement Academy (IA) and Ms Shelley Thomson, IA Faculty Member and Director of Experience 360.  

This session illustrated how consumer lived experiences and co-design methods could be harnessed to propel quality improvement initiatives. The workshop delved into a case study focusing on the experiences of three consumers who had received early breast cancer diagnosis. Using pre-recorded audio describing their experiences and interactions with the health system, this workshop demonstrated how consumer co-design was a powerful tool for improving consumer experience, patient safety and efficiency.  

Pictured (left to right): Ms Shelley Thomson and Associate Professor Bernie Harrison


The Future of Accreditation Session 

Ms Louise Cuskelly, Executive Director, ACHS International and Consulting, delivered a session titled “Patient Safety and co-creating care with service”. The session discussed accreditation beyond compliance and how safety and quality assessment in healthcare has evolved. It explored how international accreditation trends are moving from ‘beyond compliance’ to ‘smart evaluation’.  

Ms Cuskelly discussed how next generation approaches to improving quality are becoming ‘outcomes’ rather than ‘process’ focused and that methodology includes a range of information sourcesthat are beyond onsite assessment.  

Trends towards customised accreditation and assessment from the perspective of service users were also discussed.  

Pictured: Ms Louise Cuskelly

Clinical Governance and Quality Improvement: A training partnership

This session delivered by Associate Professor Bernie Harrison and Ms Beverly Sutton, CEO, Australasian Institute of Clinical Governance (AICG) focused on the synergistic relationship between Clinical Governance (CG) and Quality Improvement (QI), and their role in improving patient outcomes.

The ACHS Improvement Academy’s flagship ‘Quality Improvement Lead (QIL) Training Program’ is specifically designed to give healthcare professionals the practical knowledge to step up and take quality improvement to the next level. This comprehensive nine-month program provides a deep immersion in improvement science, reliability science, transformative leadership and clinical governance for improvement.

The Australasian Institute of Clinical Governance (AICG) provides a strong foundation for CG concepts in their ‘Certificate in Clinical Governance for Patient Safety and Quality Care’. Their flagship course ensures that staff involved in the provision of care have an applied understanding of clinical governance standards and are armed with the tools to apply their knowledge in day-to-day care. 


Pictured: Associate Professor, Bernie Harrision and Ms Beverly Sutton

Thank you to forum organisers and speakers. As a strategic partner, ACHS are proud to support the forum’s initiatives towards inspiring better-quality healthcare. We look forward to participating in the IHI BMJ forum in Brisbane in 2024.