South Gippsland Hospital achieves accreditation

HEALTH and Disability Auditing Australia (HDAA), a leading certification and accreditation agency, has recognised South Gippsland Hospital (SGH) for its high-quality safe care. 

SGH have been advised that they are being recommended to receive a perfect score card, with 151 actions being met across eight standards.

Paul Greenhalgh, chief executive officer at SGH says that the health service prides itself on its service model, which is underpinned by an extraordinary team, resulting in an excellent quality of care for our community. 

“SGH understands the expectation of the community is to receive high quality safe care and this outstanding result exemplifies how amazing the SGH team is. This outcome is a direct result of every employee and volunteers’ attitude toward their respective roles; living our values, working hard, and caring about each other and our patients, clients and the broader community.”

“I would like to commend all the SGH family; our staff, volunteers and consumers, for their contribution to the HDAA three-day visit and all their work in the preceding years to implement continuous quality service improvements. This result validates that our structures, systems, policies and procedures are in sync with contemporary standards of care,” said Paul. 

Receiving HDAA accreditation, against the second version of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, signifies that SGH safely delivers high quality acute and community care. 

The NSQHS standards were developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, in collaboration with the Australian Government, states and territories, private sector providers, clinical experts, patients and carers.

The primary aims of the NSQHS Standards are to protect the public from harm and to improve the quality of health service provision. 

The eight NSQHS standards provide a nationally consistent statement about the systems and processes consumers can expect health services to have in place, to deliver high quality and safe care.
During the auditors visit, SGH was able to showcase evidence of how it conforms with the standards. Whilst there are some areas for further improvement, Mr Greenhalgh says that much data speaks to the safety of the health service. 

“Our people matter survey results from 2021 evidenced that we are in the business of safety. Eighty-six percent of staff had a positive response to safety culture questions, some eighteen percent more than the state benchmark, and third highest in the state.”

“Also, a safety climate survey in 2019, put SGH in the top quartile. Another survey indicating a solid performance relates to a recent Victorian health experience survey, where one hundred percent of patients always felt cared for in the hospital. These are just some examples, and we are so thrilled to have been acknowledged for the work we do,” said Paul.