Getting started
If you’re new to quality improvement in a hospital or health service setting, this section has information on how it works, where to find help and how to set yourself up for success.
Adj Prof Tanya Farrell
Tanya Farrell is a midwife and a nurse - and holds two key roles that focus on improving healthcare for women, babies and children across Victoria.
As the A/Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, Tanya provides strategic clinical leadership and advice on issues related to maternity services and midwifery, particularly in relation to safety and quality improvement.
Reviewing an adverse event
1. Form a review team
Avoiding delays in your review will help you identify and act on areas that can be improved.
Find an external expert to help
Health services should have at least one independent member on their serious and sentinel event review panels.
Find an external expert through PEER.
Include a consumer representative
A consumer representative will help you understand the patient perspective and highlight areas for improvement.
Managing adverse events
When patients are unexpectedly harmed or die, a review team comes together to find out what happened, why, and how to prevent it from happening again. We help you learn from these events and near misses.
Statutory duty of candour
From November 2022, public and private hospitals will be required to:
A guide for health services
Partnering with consumers is an important strategy to improve patient care, as they have first-hand experience with your health service.
Consumer involvement also helps you:
Partnering in healthcare framework
Our Partnering in healthcare framework will help you improve healthcare and outcomes for Victorians by better involving consumers and their families. The framework gives you strategies to respond to the needs and expectations of consumers.
Sentinel events
Health services must report the most serious cases of patient harm and death caused by adverse patient safety events, and make sure they’re properly reviewed. SCV also follows up with health services to check they’ve acted to help prevent further harm.