Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 5) (Cth)

Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No.5)

I, BRENDAN MURPHY, delegate of the Minister for Health, make the following declaration under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

Dated     10 December 2018   

Prof. Brendan Murphy

Chief Medical Officer
Department of Health

Contents

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

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

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

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

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

Schedule—Declaration of quality assurance activity   2

1  Name

This instrument is the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 5).

2  Commencement

This instrument commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.

3  Authority

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

4  Repeal

This Declaration is repealed at the end of 5 years after the date on which it was signed.

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—Declaration of quality assurance activity

1          Name of quality assurance activity:

Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER).

2          Description of activity:

This quality assurance activity is a clinical incident reporting system that captures information via a secure online website hosted at The system provides for emergency physicians, emergency medicine trainees and allied health professionals practising in Australia, and health care consumers to enter incidents that resulted in an adverse outcome or ‘near-miss’ event, which are those incidents that could have or nearly did result in adverse outcomes. Participation in the database is voluntary, anonymous and confidential.

The EMER is conducted by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Limited (ACEM).

The data entered into the EMER is recorded in a database managed by the ACEM. Users of the EMER provide information about incidents in response to closed-ended and open-ended questions.  

The data captured in the EMER is aggregated and de-identified by a designated data custodian appointed by the ACEM and analysed in detail by the ACEM to inform system improvements in emergency medicine practice in the following ways:

·release of information to members of the emergency medicine profession who request specific categories of de-identified EMER data for quality assurance research activities;

·presentation of de-identified results at state, national, and international emergency medicine safety and quality conferences and through scientific peer reviewed publications;

·presentation at events to promote EMER, including patient safety issues identified by EMER, learnings and corrective strategies;

·publication on the ACEM website, member newsletters, de-identified case studies in research articles and peer reviewed journals; and

·inform updates to ACEM’s clinical practice policies and standards.