A draft copy of the college’s sixth set of practice standards also features consumer expectation statements.
The next edition of the RACGP’s Standards for general practices features five new standards, but 31 fewer mandatory criteria for clinics to meet in order to pass accreditation.
A draft copy of the guidelines’ sixth edition is now open for consultation until the end of the month.
One of the major differences between the fifth and sixth editions will be structural.
The current standards, which are the fifth edition, are broken down into a “core module” with eight standards, a “quality improvement module” with three standards and a “general practice module” with six standards.
The sixth edition, meanwhile, will feature the following five standards: foundations of general practice, clinical governance, patient participation, continuous quality improvement and point of care testing.
The last is optional.
Within the four mandatory standards, there are 35 criteria categories and 86 mandatory criteria, which were previously called “indicators”.
More specifically, the draft standards introduce new criteria relating to defining and planning for the practice, which includes requiring each practice to “define and monitor its mission and values” and “incorporate and assess a strategic approach to the safe provision of healthcare”.
There are also new criteria for environmental sustainability, digital health technologies, managing clinical risk and AI usage.
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On AI, the new standards ask that practices have clear policies in place that hold clinicians accountable for care decisions supported by AI tools and to facilitate patient data deidentification.
Other new additions include consumer expectation statements at the beginning of each criteria category.
These range from “I expect that this practice has defined mission and values and monitors its progress towards achieving them supported by appropriate and current policies and procedures” to “I expect my digital health information is managed, kept up-to-date and available when my care provider needs it, or I request it”.
The new standards will apply to all GP clinics seeking accreditation, as well as mobile services and clinics that serve a specific patient cohort, such as residential aged care.
For a short period of time, practices will be able to choose whether they would prefer to be accredited under the fifth or sixth edition standards.
Telehealth-only services are not eligible to be accredited, nor are non-GP-led services.
Consultation on the draft standards close on Sunday 28 September.
