Targeting zero, the review of hospital safety and quality assurance in Victoria

The review is a detailed and extensive analysis into how the department oversees and supports quality and safety of care across the Victorian hospital system.

We consulted widely, seeking the views and experiences of patients, clinicians, hospital managers and boards about how to make Victoria's healthcare systems safer.

The review highlights several cases as missed opportunities where practice excellence was not shared across the health system.

The department accepts in principle all the recommendations and work is already underway to implement them.

Better, Safer Care, Delivering a world-leading healthcare system sets out how the government and department are addressing the entirety of the Review's recommendations under four areas of emphasis:

Setting the goal that no one is harmed in our hospitals
Supporting strong leadership in hospital governance - with good clinical leaders, effective boards and rigorous oversight
Sharing excellence across our health system - so that where one hospital does something well, others can follow suit; and
Collecting great data about patients' experiences and feeding that back across the system to improve patient care.

As part of this response, new organisations will be established to simplify the current system and better respond to the needs of patients and healthcare workers:

Safer Care Victoria will work with health services to monitor and improve the quality and safety of care delivered across our health system, with the goal of achieving zero avoidable patient harm.
A new health information agency will analyse and share information across our system to ensure everyone has an accurate picture of where the concerns are, and where we're getting it right.
The Victorian Clinical Council will provide clinical expertise to the Government, the department and health services on how to make the system safer and provide better care to all Victorians.
The Ministerial Board Advisory Committee will ensure our hospital and health service boards have the right mix of skills, knowledge and experience to strengthen local governance and decision making.

To learn more about the response and the full range of actions to be undertaken by the government and the department download Better, Safer Care, Delivering a world-leading healthcare system.