Clinical Governance

governance

Drug ARM has developed a well-defined Clinical Governance system that ensures and safeguards our high standards of care and support. The organisation’s Clinical Governance Policy sets out the quality and safety agenda for the development and delivery of our services and programs.  It is structured to support emerging National and State trends in safety and quality and provides the overarching framework through which the organisation implements and actions services that strive for clinical excellence.

Drug ARM recognises that effective Clinical Governance  can only occur under a whole of organisation approach where the Board; Executive; Managers and staff share responsibility and accountability for the care of clients and for the continuous improvement of the quality of our services and programs.  The resulting framework is inclusive and represents recognised best practice principles that:

• are underpinned by the Christian and Program principles of the organisation
• focus on individual and their families as the centre of decision making in their care
• includes communication loops between the strategic direction and the quality systems in which we operate
• allocates appropriate resources and delineates roles and responsibilities clearly and explicitly
• builds an honest and transparent relationship with all stakeholders that promotes open disclosure and communications as a foundation for continuous improvement
• holds continuous improvement structures, systems and processes as a centrepiece of all activities
• promotes systems that demonstrate rigour in identifying, monitoring and responding to incidents
• understands that performance management, monitoring and reporting is necessary in its ability to inform development processes and that collectively this is the key to our excellence in service provision

Drug ARM is committed to continuously improving the quality of our programs and services and this is reflected as a focus of our Clinical Governance framework. Some of the key elements include:

• Professional development
• Clinical auditing and review of practice
• Clinical effectiveness based upon evidence informed practice
• Clinical risk management
• Action research and action learning processes
• Consumer, carer and family input

The Drug ARM Board strongly supports the Clinical Governance framework, principles and activities and understands that collectively they provide and represent the essential keys to our ongoing success.

The overall governance framework for Drug ARM incorporates both Corporate Governance and Clinical Governance for our clinical services.