QIC Health and Community Service Standards 7th Edition Review

UPDATE

The QIC Standards are reviewed on a regular basis in accordance with the QIC Standards Development and Review Policy, and the Guidelines and Principles approved by the International Society of Health Care (ISQua). The ISQua document is titled ‘Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Health and Social Care Standards (5th edition Version 1.0, September 2018). Following these Guidelines and Principles ensures that the QIC Standards are developed and reviewed according to world best practice.

In February 2021, community health organisations and QIP Assessors were invited to participate in consultation on the revised version of the QIC Health and Community Services Standards 7th Edition (Version 1.1)

After analysing the received feedback additional amendments were made to the proposed standards. The revised standards were sent to the organisations that provided feedback during the first round of consultation. They were asked to pilot the revised QIC Standards to ensure they were relevant, understandable, measurable, believable and achievable.

The primary changes that have been included as a result of this review is the requirements for Infection Management and Prevention.

The QIC Standards focus for infection management is on:

• Environmental cleaning
• Hand hygiene
• Waste management
• Pandemic planning, and
• Health alerts.

There is now a greater focus on:

• Risk management
• Training
• Business continuity and disaster recovery planning,
• Analysing performance data for quality improvement purposes,
• Management of ethical dilemmas, and
• Inclusivity and cultural appropriateness with attention to consumer involvement in case, and
• Management planning.

The QIC Health and Community Services Standards 7th Edition (Version 1.1) will be launched on 1 March 2022. Between 1 March and 31 August 2022, a transition plan will be in place that will provide client organisations with the opportunity to choose which version of the QIC Sstandards they wish to self-assess against. From 1 September 2022, all QIP client organisations undertaking or wishing to undertake accreditation against the QIC Standards, will commence their self-assessment against the QIC Health and Community Services Standards 7th Edition (Version 1.1).

The QIP Team is currently developing online training modules and resources to provide education on the differences between the QIC Standards 7th Edition and QIC Standards 7th Edition (Version 1.1). These will be available to all client organisations from 1 March 2022.

___________________________________________________________________________________

The QIC Standards are reviewed on a regular basis in accordance with the QIC Standards Development and Review policy and the principles approved by the International Society of Health Care (ISQua), namely the Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Health and Social Care Standards (5^th Edition). This is to ensure that the QIC Standards are developed and reviewed according to world best practice.

In 2020, the QIC Standards are to undergo a minor review, where all the standards are subject to review and possible change.

The process of the review includes the following steps:

• Stakeholder engagement
• Initial consultation phase
• Develop draft standards
• Consultation on draft standards
• Refinement of standards
• Pilot standards
• Refinement of standards
• Development of support tools
• Transition plan development
• Standards launch

QIP values the input of stakeholders in the development of the QIC Standards and will engage a variety of stakeholders throughout this process.

By February 2021 QIP will be sending out a survey to all community health services who are accredited against the QIC Standards for you to provide feedback on the current QIC Standards and the potential new areas within the QIC Standards as well as all QIC Assessors.