COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Instrument number QAA 2/2011
Declaration of Quality Assurance Activity under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.
 
I, NICOLA ROXON, Minister for Health and Ageing, make this instrument under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act).
 
 
1.             DECLARE the Activities described in Schedule 1 to this declaration (the Activities) to be quality assurance activities to which Part VC of the Act applies being satisfied in relation to the Activities that:
(i)            the organisations engaging in the Activities are authorised to do so by associations of health professionals or educational institutions; and
(ii)          it is in the public interest that Part VC of the Act applies to the Activities having regard to the criteria prescribed in regulations 23C to 23G (inclusive) of the Health Insurance Regulations 1975.
 
Dated   15     /     5    / 2011
 
 
NICOLA ROXON
Minister for Health and Ageing
 
Part 1         Preliminary
1              Name of Declaration
This Declaration is the Declaration of Quality Assurance Activity under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.
 
2              Commencement
      This Declaration commences the day after registration on the Federal Register of 
      Legislative Instruments.  Section 124X(4) of the Act prescribes that, unless sooner 
      revoked, this declaration ceases to be in force at the end of five years after the
      instrument of declaration was signed.
 
Part 2         Schedule 1                 
QAA2/2011 – Declared  Quality Assurance Activities
 
 
[1]       Oesophago-Gastric Cancer and Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour Audit
 
           
            Description:
           
            The audit is being conducted on behalf of the Australian and New Zealand Gastric and Oesophageal Surgeons Association (ANZGOSA) by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. The activity will collect and store clinical and pathological data for patients undergoing surgery for oesophago-gastric cancer or gastrointestinal stromal tumour.  Data will be submitted by any practising member of ANZGOSA to a secure online database accessible through a link on the ANZGOSA website.  Data collected will be used both as a self-assessment tool for individual surgeons and as a resource for ANZGOSA to establish benchmarks and clinical guidelines for surgical care in this area.
 
[2]        Australasian Vascular Audit
 
           
            Description:
           
            The audit is being conducted by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Vascular Surgery (ANZSVS). The audit aims to prospectively capture all private and public vascular surgery procedures in Australia and New Zealand including both open and endovascular procedures.  Note that New Zealand members are protected by their own National privilege law.
            The data will be analysed annually to assess in-hospital performance in four main areas of vascular surgery: mortality after open and endoluminal treatment of aortic pathology; patency and limb loss after lower limb bypass procedures; stroke and death rate after carotid endarterectomy and stenting and patency after AV fistula creation.  Four elected members will form the audit monitoring committee.
 
[3]        Rural Procedural Audit    
 
 
            Description:
           
            The audit is conducted by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. The  project will support rural procedural specialists to collect audit data which will be added to the database established during a previous project, the Rural Craft Group Audit.  The data base is used to develop standards for five key surgical procedures against which rural specialists can benchmark their practice.  They are: cholecystectomy; colorectal cancer; inguinal hernia; breast cancer and thyroid. Specialists from approximately fifteen rural hospitals  as well as specialists from rural and remote areas across Australia will be invited to submit data.  Participating specialists will receive individualised reports comparing their procedural outcomes against the established benchmarks.
 
[4]        Tech Watch – Evaluating the Safety of Clinical Software in General Practice
 
           
            Description:
           
The study will be conducted by the Centre of Health Informatics, University of New South Wales. It would be the first to undertake a nation-wide examination of patient safety incidents involving the use of clinical software.  The aim of the activity is to examine the safety of using clinical software by GPs by measuring the types of patient safety incidents associated with the use of clinical software and the mechanisms behind computer-related problems in general practice.  Patient safety incident data collected during the study will be analysed to provide evidence about the causes, consequences and outcomes of patient safety incidents associated with the use of clinical software in general practice.
 
[5]        Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Paediatric Intensive Care (ANZPIC) Registry
 
           
            Description:
           
The activity will be conducted by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Centre of Outcome and Evaluation (CORE)  and the ANZICS Paediatric Study Group.  Data on individual episodes of care for paediatric patients are submitted to the ANZPIC Registry.  Individual site reports are produced which detail mortality, standardised mortality ratios, length of stay in ICU, as well as demographic and diagnostic information. The aim of the activity is to provide participating Intensive Care Units (ICUs) with quality of care reports describing efficacy and efficiency of care in their unit compared to similar units in the region.
 
 
[6]        Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Adult Patient Database
           
 
            Description:
           
The activity will be conducted by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society(ANZICS) Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation (CORE).  Data on individual episodes of care within Adult Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are submitted to the Adult Patient Database (APD).  Individual site reports are produced which detail mortality, standardised mortality ratios, severity of illness scores, length of stay in ICU and in hospital.  These are sent back to individual ICUs and jurisdictional liaison committees and are made available via the internet through a secure portal. The aim of the activity is to provide feedback to government bodies and ICUs about demographics and outcomes of patients admitted to ICUs in Australia, which in turn allows comparative performance between ICUs to be assessed.
 
 
[7]        “My CPD” Program of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)
 
 
            Description:
           
            “My CPD” is an accredited online continuing professional development program designed as a quality assurance activity to assist the competence and performance of Fellows of  the RACP  by allowing participants to plan, record and reflect on their professional development needs as part of their pursuit towards life long professional learning.   The objective of the activity is to promote self-reflection and insight into the way Fellows learn in order to improve and plan future learning, ultimately encouraging change in clinical practice and improving patient care.  It is the self-reflection element of the “My CPD” program that is the subject of the qualified privilege cover.
 
[8]       Professional Qualities Reflection (PQR) of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)
 
 
            Description:
           
            The purpose of the Professional Qualities Reflection (PQR) is for RACP trainees to record the developments of ideas and insights that may impact on their medical professionalism through the process of reflection.  This allows trainees to revisit an experience and extract learning principles through the process of guided critical reflection (review, evaluation and discussion).  Learning outcomes of the reflective process are used to enhance future practice. 
 
[9]       Quality and Accreditation Program of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) 
 
 
            Description:
           
The activity provides a comprehensive framework for the implementation of standards of practice for medical imaging services in Australia.  The standards are implemented through a series of quality assurance processes, some of which involving imaging practices’ submission of data to the College for independent expert peer review.  Participants obtain professional expert feedback and advice to support their continuous quality improvement processes in medical imaging. 
 
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