Introduction to Clinical Governance
Over recent years the health service has placed an important emphasis on quality and patient safety by developing an infrastructure for integrated quality, safety and risk management with the aim of achieving excellence in clinical governance. The HSE Quality and Patient Safety Directorate is building on this.
Formalised governance arrangements ensure that everyone working in the health and personal social service are aware of their responsibilities, authority and accountability and work towards achieving improved patient outcomes. Governance recognises the inter-dependencies between corporate and clinical governance across services and integrates them to deliver high quality, safe and reliable healthcare. We are all responsible and together we are creating a safer healthcare system.
Read more about the Clinical Directorship at the NRH
What is Clinical Governance?
Clinical governance is a framework through which healthcare teams are accountable for the quality, safety and satisfaction of patients in the care they deliver….a culture and commitment to agreed service levels and quality of care to be provided are characteristic of clinical governance.
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Clinical governance is a framework through which healthcare teams are accountable for the quality, safety and satisfaction of patients in the care they deliver. It is built on the model of the chief executive, general manager or person in an equivalent role working in partnership with the clinical director, director of nursing, service and healthcare professional leads. A key characteristic of clincial governance is a culture and commitment to agreed service levels and quality of care to be provided.
Clinical governance helps ensure people receive the care they need in a safe, nurturing, open and just environment arising from corporate accountability for clinical performance. The benefit of clinical governance rests in improved patient experiences and better health outcomes in terms of quality and safety. This has resulted in the clinical governance approach being widely adopted internationally.
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Clinical Governance Vision
Clinical governance is an integral component of governance arrangements, where:
- each individual, as part of a team, knows the purpose and function of leadership and accountability for good clinical and social care;
- each individual, as part of a team, knows their responsibility, level of authority and who they are accountable to;
- each individual, as part of a team, understands how the principles of clinical governance can be applied in their diverse practice;
- a culture of trust, openness, respect and caring is evident among managers, clinicians, staff and patients;
- each individual, as part of a team, consistently demonstrates a commitment to the principles of clinical governance in decision making; and
- clinical governance is embedded within the overall corporate governance arrangement for the statutory and voluntary health and personal social services in realising improved outcomes for patients.
Health Service Executive