ACHS’s 27th Annual QI Award Winners Announced

The winners of the ACHS Quality Improvement (QI) Awards in 2024 have been announced during the ACHS Annual Awards Ceremony.

The following winning organisations showcased dedication to fostering innovation in various healthcare settings, focusing on enhancements in patient safety and outcomes. Congratulations goes to SA Medical Imaging, CALHN and Women's and Children's Health Network from South Australia (SA), Sydney Local Health District from New South Wales (NSW) and Western Health from Victoria (VIC).

Dr Karen Luxford, ACHS CEO, presented the awards across three categories: Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety, Non-Clinical Service Delivery and Healthcare Measurement.

The Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety Award was presented to SA Medical Imaging, CALHN and Women's and Children's Health Network who won with their submission titled ‘Fast Advice and Access for Intravenous Routes with Imaging (FAAIRI) Service’. The broad collaborative effort from the teams at SA Medical Imaging and the Women’s and Children’s Health Network produced the FAAIRI service to address the issues with choosing and inserting the appropriate vascular access device (VAD) for children, especially those with difficult IV access (DIVA). This project highlighted the issues associated with this clinical need, including the negative flow on effects of poor patient experience, inefficient use of clinical resources (including clinician time and consumables) and increased hospital stay bed days. The FAAIRI service was able to demonstrate significant improvements across all highlighted areas with appropriation of existing resources and a changed model of care, providing a blueprint for improving safety and quality in this area, without the need for additional resources.

Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) won the Non-Clinical Service Delivery Award for their submission titled, ‘Harnessing Byproduct Water: Advancing Sustainable Water Management in Local Community’. SLHD showed a unique approach to tackling their sustainability goals, specifically looking at applications for the use of wastewater generated in the creation of ultrapure water for kidney dialysis. SLHD, in conjunction with the City of Sydney (CoS), embarked on a project to test the quality of this wastewater, primarily reverse osmosis (RO) concentrated water, and explore applications for its reuse. Through research, SLHD showed that this RO concentrated water was able to have street-cleaning applications for CoS, further demonstrating commitment to safety, quality and sustainability goals by using this research and subsequently installing the infrastructure to optimise the reuse of previously wasted water. SLHD has provided a framework for other services wanting to engage in this work, as well as some ideas for alternative applications.

The Healthcare Measurement Award was won by Western Health with their project, ‘Piloting a Power Shift through Food’. This project focused on the nutritional needs of residents at Grant Lodge, a 30-bed residential aged-care facility, with the goal of enabling positive outcomes addressed by three key areas: Governance, Individualised Care and Cultural Change. The dietician-led project addressed issues with the existing menu and dining experience, facilitated engagement with residents in decision-making, and encouraged a more robust governance framework to enable and sustain change. Western Health demonstrated statistically significant gains in nutritional quality of meals, reduction of wastage and resident’s body weight outcomes. Improvements in the physical dining space, structure of mealtimes, adoption of the International Dysphagia Diet Standard Initiative (IDDSI) and the establishment of a vegetable garden are just some of the many initiatives adopted that allowed this project to show great improvement in safety and quality for the residents of Grant Lodge.

Dr Luxford remarked “It has been great to receive an increasing number of applications in 2024, showing the commitment ACHS Members have to the safety and quality of care to patients. Now in its 27th year, we are proud to celebrate all QI Award submissions for their outstanding quality improvement activities, initiatives and strategies. Congratulations again to our winners”.

For further information about the winning submissions and other highly commended entrants please view the latest Quality Initiatives Publication on the ACHS Website.

Contact Marketing Manager Gemma Puplett on (02) 9281 9955 for more information.