Clinical risk management

Improving patient safety in Victoria's public health services

Adverse events and medical error in health care has been recognised as an important public health problem.

Given the complexity of the health care system, preventing adverse events and improving patient safety requires a multifaceted approach.

The government is committed to improving patient safety in Victorian health services. A great deal of the responsibility for achieving results rests with the health services and clinicians.

What is clinical risk management?

Clinical risk management (CRM) is an approach to improving the quality and safe delivery of health care by:

• placing special emphasis on identifying circumstances that put patients at risk of harm
• acting to prevent or control those risks.

Health service CRM systems

All health services are expected to make patient safety a priority. They are required to establish local health service based CRM systems, or enhance existing CRM systems, in line with the Victorian clinical governance policy framework.

Health services are required to establish a structured incident management review process consistent with best practice and reflective of their clinical governance policy, and in line with the Victorian health incident management policy.

The Incident Severity Rating (ISR) guides the level of investigation. For more information see the Victorian health incident management policy guide.

A range of resources and toolkits are available to support integrated CRM in Victorian health services.