The Australian Health Insurance Association (AHIA) today welcomed and endorsed the Australian Government’s plan to introduce performance standards for all hospitals as part of its proposed National Health and Hospitals Network.
In addition, the AHIA indicated that the Government should also ensure the reporting of performance standards for all providers.
“Genuine reform of the health system can only occur if improving safety and quality outcomes for patients is the central focus of any policy changes”, said AHIA CEO, Dr Michael Armitage.
“Information on the performance of hospitals and providers should be made available to all health consumers without delay.
“The AHIA notes the success of Minister Gillard’s My School website and calls on Minister Roxon to deliver a similar initiative around the reporting of hospital and provider performance.
“Such an initiative would allow for publicly‐identified benchmarks in health care across both the public and private systems and would be to the benefit of all patients”, Dr Armitage said.
Contact: Craig Simonetto 02 6202 1000