Orbost Regional Health (ORH) has a quality program to support a culture of continual improvement in all parts of the organisation. Within this framework of continuous improvement are the important elements of risk management and occupational health and safety.

A significant part of the quality program is maintaining accreditation which is the successful completion of a survey or audit against particular standards. To provide a quality service and achieve accreditation, ORH ensures that services and practices follow current guidelines, regulations, standards and codes of practice.

Our organisation wide accreditation program is called EQuIP (Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program). EQuIP is the quality framework designed by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) and is specifically designed for the healthcare setting. During an EQuIP accreditation audit, external surveyors from ACHS conduct an onsite survey to check our practices against the ACHS standards.

ACHS conducted an on-site accreditation survey in September 2010 when ORH successfully achieved the required standard for all EQuIP criteria including 11 extensive achievements and 1 outstanding achievement. ORH is fully accredited by ACHS until January 2015.

ORH is also accredited for specific programs or departments including:

• HACC (Home And Community Care) National Standards accreditation
• HASS (Homelessness Assistance Service Standards) Accreditation
• Orbost Medical Clinic AGPAL (Australian General Practice Accreditation Ltd) accreditation
• Radiology accreditation against the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme Standards

ORH will be required to be accredited against new National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards by 1 January 2013 and these will be incorporated into the next ACHS periodic review.