Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)
Quality is the foundation of any strong organisation and that’s certainly true at AMSANT and at our member services.
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a management process that encourages all healthcare teams to continuously ask the questions: How are we performing? and How can we do better? To address these questions, clinical and administrative data is consolidated to embed CQI into all aspects of Aboriginal primary health care (PHC), thereby improving health outcomes and promoting excellence.
AMSANT’s member services have embraced CQI enthusiastically (and very successfully!) for more than a decade, using tools and techniques to identify areas for improvement via action planning and monitoring. CQI is now recognised as ‘core business’ by all our services. It’s a daily priority.
The CQI process can be applied to all areas of health practice and a strong commitment by healthcare teams enables sustainable improvements in quality. It means we understand our performance at all levels as we bring systems, technology and people together to improve health service delivery.
AMSANT’s CQI program enables on-going support and advice about CQI approaches to improving systems of care for all primary health services across the NT; the facilitators are supported and mentored by two CQI Coordinators in Darwin and Alice Springs.
Our program is flexible and centres on CQI principles and frameworks that give a practical approach to Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) and NT Government (NTG) health services.
The core principle that guides our work is the focus on patients, information and safety, as we enhance each organisation’s processes using multi-disciplinary approaches to problem solving.
Our commitment to improvement is based on collaboration and knowledge sharing, most notably at the annual CQI meetings where 170 practitioners from far and wide work together to find new ways to perform better, as individuals and as organisations.
Anita Graham
David Reeve
Sharon Manhire