Letters
Health services administration
Volume 176 - Issue 4

Detecting and reducing hospital adverse events: outcomes of the Wimmera clinical risk management program

Authors:  Alan M Wolff, Jo Bourke, lan A Campbell and David W Leembruggen

Med J Aust 2002; 176 (4): 192-193. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04363.x
Published online: 18 February 2002
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In reply: The model developed in the Wimmera hospital for clinical quality improvement has formed the basis for quality improvement systems in several regional and tertiary hospitals in Australia. The resources required to implement the model have been costed, and the Victorian Department of Human Services has allocated $4.8 million to establish clinical risk management programs based on the Wimmera model in every Victorian public hospital in 2001–2002.1

Whichever programs are implemented, some adverse events will be missed. However, not all medical records need to be reviewed, nor all adverse events found. Regular identification of some events provides significant opportunities to improve care.

As clinician time is limited, some hospitals that have implemented the Wimmera model have paid clinicians with existing appointments for extra hours to participate in risk-management programs. Although feedback to general practitioners is logistically more difficult in a tertiary centre, it can still provide valuable information if limited to only a sample of inpatients. We agree that some departments in tertiary hospitals, because of their specialised nature, would need to develop additional screening criteria.

The actual cost of running a clinical risk-management program based on the Wimmera model depends on how many components of the model are implemented, but in our experience should not exceed 0.5% of a hospital's total budget. Cost–benefit analyses are difficult to undertake, as some adverse events arise through underuse of available evidence, and additional resources would be needed for full implementation of the evidence (eg, giving prophylactic antibiotics immediately before surgery to prevent postoperative infection,2 or low molecular weight heparin postoperatively to prevent thromboembolism3).

We believe that in any institution, whatever its size, the initiation of effective programs for clinical quality improvement needs both enthusiastic support from the highest level of management and champions at the "coalface" of patient care. If these two elements are present, adequate resources will often be found. However, providing resources without appropriate clinical and administrative support is unlikely to improve patient care.

Authors

  • Alan M Wolff1
  • Jo Bourke1
  • lan A Campbell1
  • David W Leembruggen1
  • 1. Wimmera Health Care Unit, Horsham, VIC.

Correspondence: arona.offenberger@dhs.vic.gov.au

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