New Interventional Procedures and Clinical Practice Innovation
The introduction of new interventional procedures and clinical practice innovations in health care setting has important implications for patient safety and quality of care. Hunter New England Health Health has a strong commitment to supporting advances in health care, and to ensuring that patients, health care professionals and the community can be confident that issues relating to the introduction of new interventional procedures and clinical practice innovations have been appropriately addressed prior to their introduction.
A New Interventional Procedure is:
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a surgical, medical, diagnostic or therapeutic procedure not previously used within the HNE Health; or
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a surgical, medical, diagnostic or therapeutic procedure that is performed within one HNE Health Facility and for which approval is sought for its performance at another HNE Health facility.
Referral to the New Interventional Procedures Policy and Guidelines is only required in the event that it is associated with a new interventional procedure or clinical practice innovation. The introduction of new medicines is the responsibility of the HNE Health Quality Use of Medicines Committee.
The safe introduction of a new interventional procedure requires deliberate consideration of the key factors that influence safe clinical practice. These factors include clinical context, appropriateness of care, patient safety, clinical and scientific rationale, informed consent, clinical ethics, resource implications, credentialing, and training and education.
The purpose of a policy and procedure guiding the introduction of new procedures and clinical innovations into the health care setting is to ensure that these factors relating to patient safety and quality of care are addressed prior to commencement of a new procedure and that patients, health care professionals and the community can be confident that a system is in place to ensure this occurs.
The NSW Health Clinical Quality and Patient Safety Framework encapsulates these principles; requiring Local Health Districts to implement NSW Health policy on Introduction of New Interventional Procedures including an evaluation and review process to ensure appropriate monitoring of new procedures. The relevant NSW Health Policy Directive PD2005_333, entitled Clinical Practice- Model Policy for Safe Introduction of New Interventional Procedures was released in January 2005.
Prior to the NSW Health Policy Directive, Hunter Area Health Services developed a policy for the Introduction of New Interventional Procedures in 2001 and the former New England Area Health Service developed its local policy, informed by a NSW Health Model Policy in 2004. In 2007 Clinical Governance undertook a significant review of existing policy and associated procedures to create a single policy and procedure for Hunter New England Health. As part of this process, senior clinicians, Clinical Operations and applicants for approval of new procedures were consulted. Benchmarking with peer organisations also occurred. The evaluation identified a number of key issues to be addressed in order to ensure that Hunter New England Health remains in step with current best practice.
In 2007 Hunter New England Health released the newly developed Policy Compliance Procedure for the safe introduction of new interventional procedures into clinical practice. This was ratified by the HNE Area Executive in accordance with the Hunter New England Health Policy Development and Implementation Framework.
To access the Policy Compliance Procedure and related documents click on the following hyperlinks:
Any enquires regarding the Introduction of New Interventional Procedures and Clinical Practice Innovation or the current evaluation should be directed to Professor Anne Duggan, Associate Director, Clinical Governance on 0418 167 464 or 4921 4913.
Useful Links
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ASNERiPS
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HNE Health Pharmacy