Sustainability and Resilience: A New Framework for Safer, Smarter Healthcare

The Healthcare Sustainability and Resilience Module reflects a growing recognition that healthcare and environmental health are deeply interconnected.

The Healthcare Sustainability and Resilience Module positions sustainability and resilience as essential components of quality healthcare. It recognises that climate change presents increasing risks to health services, communities and patients, from extreme weather events and disruptions to service delivery through to broader impacts on population health. Building resilient health services ensures organisations can continue to provide safe, accessible and effective care despite these growing challenges. 

Importantly, the framework encourages organisations to embed environmental sustainability and climate resilience into existing governance, safety and quality improvement systems. It recognises sustainability as an essential component of person-centred and high-quality care. 

The Module identifies five key areas for action 

Governance, leadership and culture: ensuring organisational leaders set priorities, establish targets, engage with consumers and monitor sustainability and resilience performance. 

Evidence-based care and health outcomes: identifying areas of high environmental impact, reducing unnecessary resource use and redesigning services to deliver high-quality care with lower environmental impacts. 

Measurement and quality improvement: incorporating environmental and climate-related indicators into quality improvement systems to support evidence-based decision-making. 

Safety and quality training: equipping the workforce with the knowledge and skills required to implement sustainability initiatives and address climate risks. 

Communication and partnerships: engaging staff, patients and communities in sustainability 

To support implementation, the Commission has also released a practical Healthcare Sustainability and Resilience Module Self-assessment Tool. The tool enables health service organisations to assess their current strategies against the Module's requirements, identify opportunities for improvement and track implementation progress over time. It can also support organisations preparing for assessment and accreditation activities. 

For more information, please visit the Commission’s website here. Alternatively, speak to your ACHS Customer Services Manager.