Westside Private Hospital gathers important data across all aspects of our hospital to continuously improve the safety, effectiveness and quality of our services. We use clinical governance systems across all levels of our organisation to achieve, monitor and regularly review our safety and quality performance.

Our entire workforce – nurses, clinicians, management, the board of Directors and support staff have accountability to patients at Westside Private Hospital and the broader community for ensuring our healthcare is safe, high quality and continuously improving. That is our commitment.

Westside Private Hospital partners with select consumers and patients as this has proven beneficial in the planning, design, delivery, measurement and evaluation of our hospital. We place great importance on these partnerships as they help to guarantee quality patient outcomes and safety standards, whilst also benefiting patients’ carers and families, our clinicians and more broadly the healthcare industry. These partnerships exist across the following three levels:

1. The relationship between Westside Private’s clinician and patient at the point of care; a relationship founded on our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, innovation and compassion.

2. Patients, carers, families and consumers’ involvement in planning, implementing and evaluating change at the department level.

3. Consumers or patients’ involvement in the governance, policy and planning of our healthcare service. Key areas focused on at this level include patient safety, facility design, quality improvement, patient or family education, professional development, ethics and research. Partnerships with the broader community may also occur at this level.

Westside Private Hospital has robust systems in place to mitigate the risk of infection, foster good antimicrobial stewardship, and support appropriate, safe and sustainable use of infection prevention and control resources.

We know the best way to stop germs from spreading and have best practice measures in place to support this, particularly with hand hygiene, sterilisation techniques and the use of protective equipment. Our facility is well-maintained and optimised for patient flow. Our systematic approach to preventing, controlling and responding to infections creates a safe environment for all visitors and staff at our facility.

Medicines are the most widely prescribed treatment in healthcare and contribute significantly to improvements in patients’ health when used appropriately.

Accurately and safely prescribing, dispensing and administering the appropriate medicine to patients and monitoring medicine use is a mandatory standard at Westside Private Hospital. Our clinicians’ duty of care ensures patients and consumers are informed about and understand their individual medical needs, and associated risks.

Before commencing an episode of care, Westside Private Hospital will source a patient’s best possible medication history and have this on record. We ask patients for full disclosure about their medical history, current medications, allergies and adverse drug reactions in our Online Health Assessment to be completed at least three days before admission. Our nurses ensure patients are discharged with all the necessary information including scripts to care for themselves once home.

Westside Private Hospital provides continuous and collaborative care to patients in partnership with their healthcare team, carers and families. Our hospital has integrated systems in place supporting our clinicians to deliver comprehensive, quality healthcare whilst mitigating and managing the risk of harm.

All clinicians at our hospital undertake a screening and assessment process with patients to identify potential risks that could be associated with the delivery of healthcare. Patients, their carers and families are consulted as part of this process to develop goal-oriented, comprehensive care plans.

If a patient is at risk of harm, our clinicians will deliver targeted, best-practice strategies to prevent and manage this from occurring. Safely managing transitions between episodes of care, and ensuring a continuum of comprehensive care are standards our clinicians abide by.

One of the best ways we coordinate safe patient care as well as visitor and workforce safety is through communication and documentation. This includes communication with our patients, carers and families, multidisciplinary teams and clinicians, and all business units across our organisation.

Effective communication and documentation help to mitigate high-risk situations and manage patient safety. Westside Private has formal processes in place to identify patients, match care to their needs, and appropriately manage clinical handovers when information about a patient’s care emerges or changes.

Whilst there are times when communication (be it informal) in the delivery of patient care will not be recorded, our hospital’s approach is always to formalise the communication and documentation requirements critical to patient safety at key times during the delivery of care.

Westside Private Hospital uses a combination of clinical governance and quality improvement systems when managing a patient’s own blood, as well as any blood or blood products.

As part of the Montserrat Day Hospital group, we have strategies and procedures in place to accurately manage the availability and safety of blood and blood products. Safety systems are in place and every care is taken to safely administer blood products to patients, and closely monitor and report any adverse reactions or incidents. This dual approach to blood management and patient care is the most effective way to ensure the appropriate and safe use of blood and blood products at our hospital.

All medical and support staff at Westside Private have a duty of care to recognise and promptly respond to changes in a person’s physiological, cognitive or mental state, otherwise known as acute deterioration. Providing patients with appropriate and timely care is part of our organisation-wide recognition and response system when acute deterioration is identified.

Early detection is critical in these situations as it may improve outcomes and lessen the intervention required when treating the patient. At Westside Private Hospital we understand the importance of identifying and acting on the warning signs of clinical deterioration efficiently and appropriately. Management of these circumstances draws on our approach to comprehensive care and communication and documentation for safety.

Having a highly-skilled healthcare team who understand the signs and symptoms that could signal acute deterioration, combined with our safety, quality and patient monitoring systems all help to recognise acute deterioration.