Latest News
Good News - Help with Diagnostic Imaging Policies and Procedures on its way.
17th May 2010
The Department of Health and Ageing have announced that they are tendering for an organisation to develop guidance material to assist practices that provide diagnostic imaging services to become accredited under Stage II of the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme.
This is great news and it will be of considerable help and assistance to practices.
It is intended that the materials will include items such as procedure documents, templates, checklists, flow charts and answers to frequently asked questions. The material is to be in various formats and appropriate for the needs of small general practices through to large specialist centres. It is expected these materials will be available in October 2010.
In the meantime, HDAA has also developed resources for diagnostic imagine practices and in July 2010 HDAA member practices will be able to access a booklet that explains the standards and the documentary evidence required for an application based on the range of services practices provide.
Remember: the Full Suite of Practice Accreditation Standards can be viewed on this website in the left hand menu under "DI Standards".
Approved Accreditor for Diagnostic Imaging Stage II
1st April 2010
HDAA is delighted to announce our appointment by the Hon Nicola Roxon MP - Minister for Health and Ageing to accredit diagnostic imaging practices for Stage II of the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme.
The Health Insurance Amendment (Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation) Act 2007 has been amended to include a greater range of modalities and the legislative instrument setting out the operational arrangements has now been approved.
Stage II of the diagnostic imaging scheme requires accreditation to 15 comprehensive Standards and encompasses a greater range of DIST modalities; therefore more practice types are eligible to participate, including;
- Cardiac Ultrasound and angiography;
- Obstetric and gynecological ultrasound;
- Nuclear medicine imaging services.
HDAA is an experienced provider of diagnostic imaging accreditation services and has designed a straightforward membership programme to support practices with accreditation in Stage II.
More information
Full information regarding Stage II of the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation scheme will be uploaded shortly to www.hdaau.com.au .
Alternatively, if your practice has queries regarding the Stage II scheme please call the HDAA diagnostic imaging team on 1800 601 696 for guidance.
NDAP agencies choose HDAA
15th February 2010
A number of the agencies in the NDAP trial audit programme have already chosen HDAA to complete their audit. We are looking forward to working with our new NDAP clients to contribute to the development of advocacy nationally.
Please contact HDAA if you have any queries regarding the NDAP or would like to discuss the supportive service HDAA can provide to your agency.
Draft Infection Control Guidelines
13th January 2010
PROPOSED GUIDELINES
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), and the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare (the Commission), have recently made the Australian Infection Control Guidelines: preventing and managing infection in health care (the draft Guidelines) available to public comment.
The aim of these draft Guidelines is to assist a coordinated approach to the management of health care associated infection. They have been developed to support other initiatives of the Commission's Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI). Please refer to http://www.health.gov.au and go to Our Work for further detail of HAI.
The draft Australian Infection Control Guidelines have been written from a care delivery perspective, focus on safety and quality and using a risk management framework. This approach differs from the current Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) 2004 Infection Control Guidelines for the prevention of transmission of infectious diseases in the health care setting which are disease and setting specific.
The NHMRC is keen to receive feedback from the community in the development of the guidelines.
To make a submission please refer to the Guidelines section of the NHMRC website http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/consult. The closing date for submissions is 10 March 2010.
National Disability Advocacy Programme (NDAP)
16th November 2009
The National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) assists more than 37,000 people with disability across Australia to overcome barriers that impact on their daily life and their ability to participate in the community. The sector has been working with the Department on the development of quality assurance assessment process as part of the national Disability Services Quality Strategy.
Health and Disability Auditing Australia is a member of the JAS-ANZ’s Disability Advocacy Technical Committee developing the independent monitoring process (Procedure 29) for the NDAP certification scheme. The Procedure will be used by accredited Certification Bodies to certify NDAP agencies against revised Disability Advocacy Standards and Key Performance Indicators and Evidence Guidelines. The approach builds on the Disability Employment Services scheme, the Queensland Disability Support Standards scheme and the Standards Disability Services in Victoria scheme.
The NDAP scheme is to be trialled from November 2009. Training for Certification Bodies is being facilitated by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) in late November. Twelve advocacy agencies from across Australia have been selected to participate in the trial programme.
A full independent evaluation of the trail will be conducted and legislative changes implementation prior the certification scheme launch in early 2011.
FaHCSIA and the NDAP sector have developed the National Disability Advocacy Programme Quality Improvement Toolkit. The Toolkit is designed to provide practical tools, resources and advice to assist NDAP agencies develop and improve advocacy work within existing and future quality assurance requirements. The toolkit is freely available to agencies and can be accessed from:
www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/disability/pubs
