THE Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has recognised five Australian health services for demonstrating excellence in implementing one of its national Clinical Care Standards (CCS), including two pharmacist-led initiatives.
The Clinical Care Standards Excellence Awards are part of a celebration of 10 years of the standards in Australia.
The Canberra Health Services Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Team, based in Canberra Hospital, received an award for its implementation of the 'Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Care Standard'.
Its proactive monthly audits at ward level helped strengthen antimicrobial stewardship across the service, supporting prescribers to make better choices and reducing the risk of antimicrobial resistance in the community.
The team, led by Senior AMS Pharmacist Laura Triggs, along with medical lead Dr Kathryn Daveson and fellow AMS Pharmacist, Emma Whitney, also worked to improve the accuracy of allergy assessments and documentation, to avoid unnecessarily excluding patients from receiving the most effective antimicrobials.
Other initiatives from the team included embedding safer prescribing practices and adherence to AMS policies by ensuring staff consult the Therapeutic Guidelines, and for the future, automated reporting direct to the Canberra Health Services safety and quality dashboard.
A second recipient was Austin Health's Medicines Optimisation Service (MOS), whose implementation of the 'Opioid Analgesic Stewardship in Acute Pain CCS' is raising the standard of opioid safety in its metropolitan hospitals and ensuring more consistent care for patients.
The team, which included clinical pharmacists Parnaz Aminian and Elizabeth Su, noted that good handovers are critical to patient safety, but communication lags between hospitals and GPs can see patients using opioids for longer than necessary, risking dependence or overdose.
The MOS hosted a roundtable with pharmacists, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, consumer advocates and a GP, to establish priorities for reducing opioid-related harm.
As a result, the team recognised the need for a digital tool to support consistent documentation of opioid management plans (OMPs), improving communication about opioid prescribing intentions across transitions of care.
After a successful pilot, the tool is now embedded in prescribing processes for emergency department and surgical patients, driving significant improvements in OMP documentation.
Before implementation, fewer than 13% of patients were discharged with an OMP, compared with well over 70% afterwards.
The Commission is holding a webinar on 19 Aug, where the award winners will share how they achieved meaningful improvements.
Learn more HERE. KB
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