Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Australasian Vascular Audit) Declaration 2023 (Cth)

Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Australasian Vascular Audit) Declaration 2023

I, PAUL KELLY, delegate for the Minister for Health and Aged Care, make the following declaration under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

Dated       12 April 2023         

Professor Paul Kelly

Chief Medical Officer

Department of Health and Aged Care

Contents

Part 1—        Preliminary   1

1  Name........................................................................................................................................ 1

2  Commencement........................................................................................................................ 1

3  Authority.................................................................................................................................. 1

4  Repeal ...................................................................................................................................... 1

5  Schedule................................................................................................................................... 1

Schedule 1— Description of quality assurance activity  2

1  Name of activity ...................................................................................................................... 2

2  Description of activity.............................................................................................................. 2

Part 1— Preliminary

1  Name

This instrument is the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Australasian Vascular Audit) Declaration 2023.

2  Commencement

(1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.

Commencement information
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Provisions	Commencement	Date/Details
1.  The whole of this instrument	The day after this instrument is registered.

Note:    This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.

(2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.

3  Authority

This instrument is made under subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

4  Repeal

This instrument is repealed when it ceases to be in force in accordance with subsection 124X(4) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

5  Schedule

The quality assurance activity described in the Schedule to this declaration is, to the extent that the quality assurance activity relates to health services provided in Australia, declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.

Schedule 1— Description of quality assurance activity

1  Name of activity

The name of the quality assurance activity is the Australasian Vascular Audit (AVA).

2  Description of activity

This quality assurance activity aims to capture all private and public vascular surgery procedures performed in Australia and New Zealand including both open and endovascular procedures. Data collected by the activity is analysed annually to assess in-hospital performance across five main areas of vascular surgery:

1.    Aortic aneurysm, aortic dissection, and aortoiliac occlusive disease

2.    Lower limb peripheral arterial disease

3.    Stroke prevention from carotid atherosclerosis

4.    Vascular access for haemodialysis in renal failure

5.    Venous disease including varicose veins

The activity will be conducted by the Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery (ANZSVS). The quality assurance activity described in this declaration applies only to health services provided in Australia.

The objectives of the AVA are to:

1.maintain the highest achievable standard of vascular surgery in Australasia;

2.allow participants to access their data and compare it with de-identified data from all other users and across hospitals where they operate;

3.allow corrective action in the event of significant adverse patient outcomes; and

4.provide a collection of de-identified data for training, research and publication, including in presentations at ANZSVS annual conferences, AVA public reports and in local and international publications.

Analysis of data will occur by the Audit Monitoring Committee, comprised of four experienced clinicians elected from the ANZSVS membership.