By Kath McDermott, Acting Director Disaster Preparedness and Response
A commitment to quality assessment and improvement in healthcare standards is a key focus of the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC). In 2019, the NCCTRC achieved a significant milestone by becoming Australia’s first accredited deployable field hospital, meeting the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards (ACHS) Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP6).
Earlier this year, the NCCTRC embarked on the re-accreditation process as part of the ACHS comprehensive review and consultation under the EQuIP6 standards.
ACHS stands as Australia’s largest independent and not-for-profit organisation dedicated to advancing healthcare quality through rigorous accreditation assessment. Its mission is to ensure that healthcare standards are current, comprehensive, and aligned with best practice across Australia, generating useful, accurate information to improve safety and quality for consumers.
In 2017, the NCCTRC established a formal clinical governance system including a Clinical Governance Framework and Committee. The committee’s decision to seek formal national accreditation of the deployable capability aimed to enhance the quality of care provided and guide ongoing improvement of patient outcomes in disaster settings.
The NCCTRC Executive team agreed to explore a quality framework that would elevate the organisation’s quality improvement process beyond the World Health Organization’s (WHO) minimum standards and aim to apply the ACHS accreditation standards to their unique field capability setting. The objective was to establish a quality improvement framework for the NCCTRC’s deployable capability, ensuring the delivery of the highest standard of care to vulnerable populations during disaster response.
The choice of the ACHS EQuIP6 Framework allowed for the flexibility in accommodating the complexity of a deployable health facility and the application of disaster response and humanitarian principles. The self-assessment process identified gaps in surveillance and audit programs leading to innovative adaptations of existing hospital-based tools for field hospital and disaster response settings. The NCCTRC joined EQuIP6 in May 2018.
This year, the NCCTRC began the re-accreditation process, including an assessment of the AUSMAT deployable field hospital capability. This initiative started with a self-assessment and culminated in a comprehensive three-day on-site organisation-wide assessment in September, resulting in the NCCTRC achieving full ACHS re-accreditation.
The EQuIP6 framework, encompassing clinical, support, and corporate functions, along with 13 standards covering 47 criteria, ensured that accreditation reflected NCCTRC’s unique operations and services. Diligent teamwork led to the compilation of evidence summaries providing a comprehensive overview of the organisation’s daily activities, including pre-deployment, deployment and post-deployment phases, as well as innovative initiatives. These summaries were submitted to ACHS six weeks prior to the survey, in preparation for the accreditors on-site evaluation.
During the survey, the ACHS accreditors conducted site visits to the NCCTRC training facility in Bees Creek, the Trauma Service at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and the NCCTRC Headquarters. These visits offered a comprehensive insight of the NCCTRC operations, highlighting the environmental and logistical challenges that are overcome to deliver quality service. Interviews between staff and the accreditors backed by substantial resources validated the submitted summaries, demonstrated a service standard that impressed the accreditors.
The accreditors’ final report praised NCCTRC, stating they were “impressed with reports indicating effective outcomes of clinical interventions for individual patients. It would be difficult to identify an area of the business that is not subjected to rigid scrutiny.”
Furthermore, “the capability of the AUSMAT to meet the requirements of an Emergency Medical Team (EMT) 1 (both fixed and mobile) or EMT 2 (full field hospital) is a credit to the whole team. The set-up and level of detail involved in ensuring services and care can be provided in the safest and most patient orientated environment really has to be observed to be fully appreciated.”
The assessors congratulated the tenacity and innovation displayed by the NCCTRC staff in navigating the volatile and ever evolving landscape of health emergency preparedness and response. Looking ahead, ACHS will conduct a mid-term review in 2025. The NCCTRC remains committed to continuous quality improvements and preparedness for health emergencies, both nationally and internationally.
Kathleen McDermott
Acting Director Disaster, Preparedness and Response
Kath played a significant, senior role in Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, both operationally and in the field. Kath was the Clinical Nurse Lead and then Mission Lead, supporting the establishment and operations of the AUSMAT Howard Springs International Quarantine Program from October 2020 – May 2021. As a registered nurse, with sub specialties that include public health, peri-operative, emergency and infectious diseases, and an established AUSMAT member, Kath has contributed to multiple deployments to incidents of national and international significance. Most recently this includes international AUSMAT deployments to support COVID-19 response in Fiji and Kiribati, as well as domestically. Kath has lived and worked in the Northern Territory for almost 30 years and commenced at the NCCTRC in 2008. Further experience includes roles as Research Coordinator and AUSMAT Health Information System Manager at NCCTRC, and as the AUSMAT representative on the WHO Minimum Data Set Working Group for EMTs which contributes to the AUSMAT field operations and member of various AUSMAT Technical Working Groups.