The August 2011 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) outlined COAG’s objectives for national health reform, including: • improving performance reporting through the establishment of the National Health Performance Authority (the Authority); and
• improving accountability through the Performance and Accountability Framework (the Framework). The NHRA builds on the Heads of Agreement – National Health Reform agreed by COAG in February 2011. The Framework is designed to support improved local level performance assessment to contribute towards the achievement of these objectives. The key objective of the Framework is to support a safe, high quality Australian health system, through improved transparency and accountability. A robust performance reporting framework is critical to ensuring extensive information is available for patients and clients, health providers, and health system managers. The Framework will underpin reporting across three domains – equity, effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery in health care. By publicly and transparently reporting on these domains of health system performance, the Framework will help to drive improvements in health system delivery and hence the achievement of broader health system objectives. |