Welcome to the Clinical Excellence Commission
Health is moving from a system where hospital and health services had separate approaches to complaints and clinical errors, to a system where uniform standards and processes have been introduced to make sure that the system learns from its mistakes and solutions are adopted system-wide. The establishment of the Clinical Excellence Commission in August 2004 as part of the NSW Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Program ensures patient safety and excellence in clinical care is a top priority for the NSW Health system.
On this website you can learn about:
- what we do
- our values
- our strategic plan
- our Directions Statement
- our key drivers and imperatives and
- our projects and programs
What's new
Patient Information Brochure: Blood transfusion
Download the Patient Information Brochure: Blood transfusion >> This brochure is part of Blood Watch a NSW state-wide transfusion medicine improvement program. Its' primary goal is to improve the safety and quality of fresh blood product transfusion in all NSW Public Hospitals. |
Quality of Healthcare in NSW: A Chartbook 2007The Clinical Excellence Commission is pleased to release Quality of Healthcare in NSW: A Chartbook 2007. The Chartbook aims to make the NSW health system better and safer for patients. It is designed to stimulate both discussion and action across the system that will lead to improvements in the quality and safety of health services. The Chartbook is not a scorecard, nor does not include information on adverse events, which are presented in detail in other CEC and NSW Health publications. The CEC will produce The Chartbook annually as a quality improvement monitoring tool to monitor and respond to changes in key areas of safety and quality. |
Incident Management in the NSW Public Health SystemSix-monthly Report Series:- July - December 2007
Download The Incident Management in the NSW Public Health System 2007, January to June |
The Collaborating Hospitals' Audit of Surgical Mortality (CHASM)April 2008
The program is overseen in NSW by the CHASM Committee – formerly the Special Committee Investigating Deaths Associated with Surgery (SCIDAWS) – a committee of surgical peers that reports to the Minister for Health through the CEC. CHASM is being progressively rolled out across NSW and commenced with two Area Health Services – Sydney West and Hunter New England from 1st Jan 2008. |
Annual Report 2007 now availableDecember 2007 "This report marks the halfway point in the first Five Year (2003-08) Strategic Plan for the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC). At any point in a journey, there is a number of ways in which we can look at our progress. The first is to stop and reflect on just how far we have come. The second is to ask the questions 'are we on the right track?' and 'have we come far enough?'. The third is to look to the future and plan the remainder of the journey. Of course, each of these is important, but only part of the necessary self-awareness. I hope that, as you read through and consider the various programs, projects and campaigns highlighted in this volume, you will catch our vision for the safety and quality of public healthcare delivery in NSW." - Professor Clifford F Hughes AO |
Understanding and Influencing Blood PrescriptionDecember 2007 A Market Research Report prepared by Eureka Strategic Research for the Clinical Excellence Commission and the National Blood Authority. |
The Quality Systems Assessment (QSA) program 'goes live'Wednesday, 17th October 2007
If you would like any assistance from your AHS, contact the Clinical Governance Unit. If you have questions about the survey questions themselves, or the QSA overall, please contact Bernadette King on 02 93827829 or bernadette.king@cec.health.nsw.gov.au |
Professor Charles Czeisler presents 'Fatigue Kills'August 2007 The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, the Clinical Excellence Commission and the NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training hosted a presentation by Professor Charles Czeisler, a world research leader probing the relationship between errors in the hospital environment and work hours. Professor Charles Czeisler is Director, Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Chief, Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston USA. His extensive studies, and those of other experts, all reach the inescapable conclusion that fatigue kills. Following his presentation, Professor Czeisler joined a panel of Australasian experts on the vexed question of fatigue and its effects on both doctors and their patients. It was a rare chance to learn about problems, solutions and advances in a field which constantly throws up challenges to both administrators and practitioners going about their business of caring for patients. |
CEC launches orientation workshop for new CLAB - ICU projectMonday, June 4th 2007
|
Answers to some common questions for your patients and their family.
The Clinical Excellence Commission is pleased to release Incident Management in the NSW Public Health System 2007, July to December. This report follows on from the previous annual series on adverse events in the NSW health system. Additional reports will be issued every six months and will be available as a matter of course on the CEC's website. The adverse events report series is part of the ongoing collaboration between the Clinical Excellence Commission and the Quality and Safety Branch of the NSW Department of Health.
The Collaborating Hospitals' Audit of Surgical Mortality (CHASM) is a systematic peer-review audit of deaths associated with surgical care. The CHASM program has the support of the NSW State Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) and NSW health system and is similar to audits of surgical mortality being established in Australian states.
The Quality Systems Assessment (QSA) program has been launched in the 8 Area Health Service (AHS) and the Children’s Hospital at Westmead with Justice Health and the NSW Ambulance Service to follow in February 2008. The purpose of the QSA is to review the systems, processes and policy frameworks which are in place to support safe and high quality patient care. The QSA consists of a number of self administered surveys which will be filled out by different levels of the system. Within Area Health Services there are four surveys: Area Health Service (AHS) level; Network / Cluster level; Facility level; and one at the Department/Clinical Unit level. These self administered surveys are referred to as 'activity statements'. The activity statements are filled out online.
The Clinical Excellence Commission today launched the first orientation workshop for the Central Line Associated Bacteraemia in Intensive Care Units project. This project is designed to reduce Central Venous Catheter Associated Bacteraemia in Patients in Intensive Care Units in NSW. Together with the Intensive Care Coordination and Monitoring Unit (ICCMU) and with the assistance of the NSW Department of Health Quality and Safety Branch, the project will use a modified collaborative methodology to reduce the risk of infection in patients admitted to Intensive Care Units across NSW, who have a Central Venous Catheter inserted as part of their treatment. This project will run until August 2008. 
