The benchmark of quality care & risk management in General Practice
As Australia’s largest professional general practice organisation, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) develops its Standards for General Practices with the purpose of protecting patients from harm by improving the quality and safety of general practice health services.
Used by over 80% of Australia’s general practices for accreditation, the RACGP Standards support general practices in identifying and addressing any gaps in their systems and processes.
A win-win for patients and general practice
Accreditation not only demonstrates to your patients that your general practice is serious about providing high-quality care, but your business will also benefit through efficiency improvements.
The accreditation process measures how your practice is performing in relation to General Practice benchmarks.
The Standards include practice services, the rights and needs of patients, safety, quality improvement and education, practice management, physical factors such as access, the facilities, equipment and clinical support processes.
To commence the process of gaining accreditation against the Standards, a general practice should choose a consulting & accreditation agency that will support them throughout the process.
RACGP Standards accreditation timeframes
The accreditation procedure from registration to decision usually takes a practice approximately 12 months. The steps involved and expected timeframes are shown below.
As part of the accreditation, your practice may be eligible to access funding from the Practice Incentives Program (PIP), Service Incentive Payments (SIP) and the Practice Nurse Incentive Program (PNIP).
Resources
For more information about RACGP accreditation, download the Standards here (PDF).