The Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) has flown through its clinical accreditation, achieving its goal in only two and a half years.
The accreditation, awarded against the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHSS), usually takes organisations up to five years to complete.
RFDS (Queensland Section) ticked it off in only half this time.
The achievement now means RFDS (Queensland Section) can clearly demonstrate its services are equal to those provided by any other health service.
RFDS (Queensland Section) General Manager Health Services Anita Hansen said: "This is a huge achievement that the organisation should be proud of. Accreditation against the Standards is common in hospitals but not in emergency or primary health care services like ours.
"We have set the bar and will continue to push forward in this for our patients and communities. People in rural and remote areas deserve the same quality of care that metropolitan and regional patients receive and RFDS is dedicated to ensuring this."
There are 10 NSQHS standards providing a nationally consistent statement about the level of care consumers can expect from health service organisations.
The accreditation is recognised as an important driver for safety and quality improvement and Australia's health accreditation processes are highly regarded internationally.
NSQHS standards are integral to the accreditation process as they determine how and against what an organisation's performance will be assessed.
RFDS (Queensland Section) CEO, Nino Di Marco said: "Patient safety is key to our organisation and we want to do everything we can to ensure our services are the best they can be.
"This constant maintenance of clinical accreditation will ensure we stay on our path towards this goal."
RFDS (Queensland Section) will now use the standards as part of its internal quality assurance mechanisms and work towards going beyond the standard set by the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards. This further growth will be demonstrated in the re-survey planned in 2019.
