Quality In Health Week Activities

Monday 17 September Celebration of Health and Disability Sector Standards

Wednesday 19 September 1st Asia Pacific Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care starts in Sydney

Thursday 20 September ACC to host internationally respected leader in Public Health Gabriel Scally from the United Kingdom

Friday 21 September National Women's Hospital Annual Clinical Report Day: A presentation of the annual clinical report held at the National Women's Hospital in Auckland.

Sunday 23 September The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners quality workshop: Quality Improvement in General Practice: Where to From Here? Launch of Aiming for Excellence:The RNZCGP Practice Standards Validation Field Trial Final Report.

Monday 24 September Annette King to host a working breakfast on quality improvement in health with parliamentary colleagues Workshop on Developing a National Health System quality Indicator Framework for District Health Boards. To be chaired by Director General of Health Karen Poutasi. Release of Sentinel Event Working Party report Toward Clinical Excellence: Learning from Experience, as well as Reportable Events Guidelines and accompanying workbook. Sector reception and release of the National Health Committee's discussion paper on quality improvement.

Tuesday 25 September Workshop for health sector representatives on Developing a National Health System Quality Indicator Framework. The purpose of such a framework would be to inform and provide assurance to New Zealanders that they can have confidence in a high performing health system.

Quality Health New Zealand Quality Improvement Awards Ceremony

Thursday 27 September British Medical Journal editor Richard Smith will be in Wellington

Local Quality Initiatives

Patient satisfaction highest at Nelson and Wairau Hospitals

Nelson and Marlborough's main hospitals are the best in the country according results of a national survey judging patient satisfaction.

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board beat 21 other boards in the survey which found 93 percent of patients rated its service above average.

The results were tallied from 13,200 questionnaires filled out by 600 hospital patients in each board's district over three months ending in December last year. The survey asked 15 questions including how clean patients rooms were, if staff were available when needed, if patients were treated with dignity and respect and how good the food was.

The surveys were a Ministry Health requirement as a means of judging the board's performance.

For more information contact: Judy Williams Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board Executive Assistant (03) 546 1824

Better outcomes for stroke patients at Middlemore Hospital

A new Acute Stroke Unit at Middlemore Hospital, the first of its kind in New Zealand, will have a significant influence on the way strokes are treated in this country.

More than 650 patients are admitted to Middlemore each year with acute strokes.

The specialised stroke unit will mean most of those patients will have a reduced length of stay and there will be better outcomes for them and their families.

Also, specialist units offer the opportunity for more training and education and for more focused and collaborative research.

The unit will be involved with education and training for medical students, nurses and allied health professionals and would also be used to conduct clinical trials in new treatments for acute care, prevention and rehabilitation.

For more information contact: David Clarke Chief Executive Officer Counties-Manakau District Health Board (09) 262 9503

Taranaki DHB leads country in new mental health resource kit

An innovative new resource for GPs that has been designed by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team at Taranaki District Health Board is attracting national attention.

The kit, in folder form, outlines services available in Taranaki for young people who may need to be referred. It also provides a guide to mental health counselling and assessment.

GPs have never had this kind of resource before and the feed back from them is that is it user friendly and the best resource kit they have ever used.

GPs are key referrers to mental health services for young people and children so it is important they have all the information necessary to make an assessment and referral.

The kit has led to improved communication between the child and adolescent team and GPs.

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Background information on Dr Donald Berwick

Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP is President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Based in Boston the IHI is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the quality of health care systems through education, research, and demonstration projects, and through fostering collaboration among health care organisations and their leaders. IHI projects extend throughout the U.S. and Canada, in a number of European countries, in Australia, and elsewhere.

Dr. Berwick is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Health Care Policy at the Harvard Medical School. He is also a pediatrician, an Associate in Pediatrics at Boston's Children's Hospital and a Consultant in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Berwick has published over 100 scientific articles in numerous professional journals on subjects relating to health care policy, decision analysis, technology assessment, and health care quality management. His research and commentaries have appeared in The Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, The British Medical Journal, and others. Books he has co-authored include Curing Health Care and New Rules: Regulation, Markets and the Quality of American Health Care.

Dr. Berwick was chair of the Health Services Research Review Study Section of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research from 1995-1999, and is currently Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He was vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 1990 through 1996. From 1996 through 1999, Dr. Berwick served as the first "Independent Member" of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association. He also served from 1989 through 1991 as a member of the Panel of Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program.

He is a member of several editorial boards, including that of The British Medical Journal.

From 1987 through 1991, Dr. Berwick was co-founder and Co-Principal Investigator for the National Demonstration Project on Quality Improvement in Health Care (NDP). He is a past president of the International Society for Medical Decision-Making. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Berwick was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry in 1997 and 1998. Co-chaired by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Labour, the Commission was charged with developing a broader understanding of the issues facing rapidly evolving healthcare delivery system and to help build consensus on ways to assure and improve the quality of health care.

A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Berwick holds a Masters of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and an MD degree cum laude from the Harvard Medical School. The father of four children (Ben-24, Dan-22, Jessica-19, and Rebecca-14), he is married to Ann (Greenberg) Berwick, an environmental attorney and former Chief of the Environmental Protection Division in the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

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