Communicating for safety

The NSQHS Standard 6: Communicating for Safety aims to ensure timely, purpose-driven and effective communication and documentation that support continuous, coordinated and safe care for patients.

SA Health resources

The SA Health Clinical Communication and Patient Identification Clinical Directive (PDF 475KB) incorporates the former Clinical Handover and Patient Identification policies and guidelines.

The Clinical Communication and Patient Identification toolkit comprises the following tools:

National Safety and Quality Service Standard 6: Communicating for Safety

This standard recognises that effective communication is needed throughout patients’ care and identifies high-risk times when effective communication is critical. It describes the systems and processes to support effective communication at all transitions of care: when critical information emerges or changes; to ensure correct patient identification and procedure matching; and to ensure essential information is documented in the patient’s healthcare record.

NSQHS Standard 6 includes the following criteria:

Contact information

Clinical Governance Unit
Email:  Health.DHWClinicalGovernanceEnquiries@sa.gov.au