We created a national communication, engagement, and education strategy to enhance the impact of the new Patient Safety Reporting Portal.
Every year there are more than 11 million hospital admissions in over 780 private and public hospitals across Australia. Behind every admission is a patient with carers, family and friends relying on safe and quality healthcare.
Hospitals track and report on quality and safety indicators however this data had been largely inaccessible to the public. International evidence has shown that increasing the transparency of information can improve safety and quality outcomes.
In 2022 the National Patient Safety Reporting Portal launched, to make patient safety indicators accessible to the public. Promoting the portal to ensure the public is aware and able to find information was key. At the same time, a wide range of issues such as hospital performance, reputation, safety, and staff recruitment would need to be navigated and managed.
Communication Link was engaged by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) to develop a national communication, engagement, and education strategy for the new portal.
We conducted three iterative design workshops to unlock the expertise and perspectives of the Commission’s Technical Advisory Group and Patient Advisory Group. The first two workshops helped develop messaging, identified critical communication channels, built an understanding of the stakeholder landscape, and determined success measures for communications. A final workshop tested elements of the draft strategy with midwives, nurses, people with disability, patient advocates, private hospital administrators, quality control officers, chronic health representatives and the Commission experts.
This process uncovered 13 critical insights to inform a comprehensive communication strategy to support hospitals across Australia through the roll out of the patient safety portal.