Canberra Health Services (CHS) has received its three-year accreditation from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, with the Council highlighting its positive workforce culture.
Welcoming the accreditation, Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen-Smith said 10 independent assessors and one assessor in-training conducted an organisation-wide assessment of CHS over five days.
Ms Stephen-Smith said CHS met all 151 actions across eight National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, and the final accreditation assessment report noted many examples of a quality healthcare system.
She said several highlights included the positive workforce culture; passionate, enthusiastic and committed staff; a strong commitment to inclusion; and the delivery of quality comprehensive care through staff collaboration across all disciplines in the patient journey.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the report also noted that CHS had comprehensive processes to ensure safe and effective responses to deterioration in a person’s mental state and rapid referral, and a robust risk management framework supported by policies, procedures and guidelines.
“These results are a really positive turnaround from four years ago when the same service (then part of ACT Health) had 33 ‘not met’ actions from the accreditation process,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“To achieve accreditation and meet all the national standards while managing the significant impacts of a global pandemic is a fantastic result for the Canberra Health Services team,” she said.
“While there are many positives, I was particularly pleased to see the assessors highlight inclusion work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, which aims to ensure First Nations people feel welcome and safe in our health facilities and help close the gap in health outcomes.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said it was also great to see some of CHS’s programs, such as Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS), receive a special mention as an example of patients being actively involved in their care from pre‑admission to discharge.
“Congratulation to all of the 8,500 CHS team members for this well-deserved recognition of your skills, commitment and the quality of work you do every day,” the Minister said.
