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Australian Health Review Australian Health Review Society
Journal of the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Framework for better care: reconciling approaches to patient safety and quality

Andrew Johnson A , Robyn Clay-Williams https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6107-7445 B C and Paul Lane A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Townsville Executive Team, Townsville Hospital and Health Service, Douglas, Qld 4814, Australia. Email: andrew.johnson@health.qld.gov.au; paul.lane@health.qld.gov.au

B Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: robyn.clay-williams@mq.edu.au

Australian Health Review 43(6) 653-655 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH18050
Submitted: 14 March 2018  Accepted: 6 June 2018   Published: 16 August 2018

Journal compilation © AHHA 2019 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

In September 2017, the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators adopted a new clinical governance framework that recognised healthcare as a complex adaptive system, and embraced the need for resilient thinking and understanding the differences between work-as-imagined by managers and work-as-done at the front line of patient care. Directors of medical services may soon be implementing the framework in health services across Australia. This perspective describes a new conceptual model that underpins the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators framework, and characterises the challenges faced by all healthcare professionals when trying to achieve safe care for patients in an environment of variable complexity and unpredictability.

Additional keyword: resilient health care.


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