Clinical quality registries have the potential to drive improvements in the appropriateness of care

The provision of timely, relevant and reliable information on patient care to clinicians has been shown to drive improvements in health care quality. Well constructed clinical quality registries collect and report information on both the appropriateness of care (process) in keeping with clinical practice guidelines and the effectiveness of care (outcomes). Notwithstanding the successful establishment of several new registries and improvements in established registries, barriers persist for clinical groups wishing to improve the quality of information and level of participation in registries in Australia. To address these barriers, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has developed the Framework for Australian Clinical Quality Registries. The Framework describes a mechanism by which government jurisdictions and private hospital groups can authorise and secure record-level data, within high priority clinical domains, to measure, monitor and report the appropriateness and effectiveness of health care. The provision of benchmarked information back to clinicians on the appropriateness and outcomes of care is expected to improve adherence to evidence-based practice and drive improvement in outcomes.