National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard 3: A Critical Review

Running head: NATIONAL SAFETY AND QUALITY HEALTH SERVICE STANDARD 3 1
A Critical Review of National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard 3
Student’s Name
University

NATIONAL SAFETY AND QUALITY HEALTH SERVICE STANDARD 3 2
A Critical Review of National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard 3
The rise of evidence-based approaches has changed the clinical environment requiring
professionals to follow a certain set of standards in dealing with clinical issues. When standards
are set within a certain industry, then it means that related organizations have to observe
uniformity by all means. In scientific approaches and use of standards, it is important to have a
clear guideline that defines the level of engagement that organizations follow when handling
patient-related issues. Uniformity of care in healthcare institutions can only be achieved if there
is a set of standards that are set to control and manage the healthcare environment by setting a
benchmark that can be used to assess and measure the performance standards of the institution
(Black, Balneaves, Garossino, Puyat, & Qian, 2015). Standards provide levels that customers
expect from healthcare organizations. The outcome of the standards is to provide patient safety
and improve the quality of life in different areas. Healthcare organizations have to be assessed to
determine if they meet the criteria set out as a way of protecting the public from harm. This
means that standards exist to set consistent levels that organizations work along to ensure
consistency and uniformity in healthcare. The National Safety and Quality Health Service
(NSQHS) Standards are used by healthcare organizations to assess their performance by
benchmarking themselves against the standards (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality
in Health Care, 2017). This means that the criteria set are the minimum standard that needs to be
followed by healthcare institutions. This will be reflected in the consistency that will be achieved
when healthcare institutions work with a standard framework that sets a benchmark on what
needs to be done and how it can be achieved. The outcome is public protection from harm and
improved quality of health services.
Standard 3: preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infection

NATIONAL SAFETY AND QUALITY HEALTH SERVICE STANDARD 3 3
The NSQHS third standard of preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infection
applies to the management and control of healthcare-associated infections to increase patient
quality of life and prevent harm. Through infection prevention and control systems, healthcare
organizations are supposed to use evidence-based systems to prevent and control health-related
associations. To achieve this standard, hospital settings must have measures in place for
identifying patients presented to the facility with risk factors for infection of different diseases or
organisms to be identified immediately so that they can receive management and treatment of the
conditions that they have. The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infections
in Healthcare has set guidelines that define evidence-based systems that hospitals are supposed
to comply with. These are hand hygiene, standard and transmission-based precautions, invasive
medical devices, workforce immunization and clean environment, aseptic technique, and
invasive services. This is because different initiatives are used to define how health initiatives
need to be done. For example, hand hygiene needs to be consistent with the National Hand
Hygiene Initiative that is based on the WHO patient safety campaigns that define the way hand
hygiene needs to be carried out.
In the Australian Capital Territory Government, infection and prevention control units are
established in hospitals to minimize the risk of infection for patients, health care providers, and
medical students. This infection control program has several strategies that are used to ensure
that there is compliance with different requirements for hospitals (ACT Government, 2019). This
is seen in Canberra Hospital which has established the unit as per the ACT government
requirements. In Infection prevention and control systems, the hospital applies several strategies
to achieve its objective. The first infection prevention strategy is to ensure compliance with
sterilization standards and guidelines like the AS4187 and GENCA which are used to prevent

NATIONAL SAFETY AND QUALITY HEALTH SERVICE STANDARD 3 4
clinical infections and at the same time monitoring bloodstream and surgical site infections
(Russo, et al., 2018). Apart from that, the unit is in charge of implementation and monitoring of
hygiene, reducing the emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms and at the same time ensuring
that infection control guidelines are adhered to within clinical settings. Further, the unit is
supposed to ensure that buildings are renovated and projects designed according to the required
clinical standards like managing the supply of medical equipment to ensure that they meet the
standards established under different medical and clinical standards.
According to the Bedoya, et al. (2017), infection prevention and control practices are a
characteristic of the whole healthcare system and not just an individual healthcare provider. This
implies that the prevention and control of infections are critical in the well-functioning of a
healthcare system. The WHO estimates that around 165,000 Australians contract hospital-related
infections every year which can be prevented (Mitchell, 2017). This challenge has been
attributed to the lack of health-associated infection surveillance which can capture the changes in
the country. This burden is not all about infection but rather some patients die due to these
infections while others are forced to stay longer in hospitals for treatment. In a review
by Mitchell, Shaban, MacBeth, Wood, & Russo (2017) reported that there is limited data on
common infection in Australia due to lack of health surveillance system that can capture and
report.
Stone (2019) adds that having reliable estimate data on health associated infections forms
the basis of prioritization of the prevention and control strategies while at the same time
providing a benchmark for the future. This shows that the existing strategies are limited in the
prevention of infections which call for the need to address the gaps by bringing together different
government bodies which can be important in achieving consensus on prevention approaches and