Lantern Alliance Quality Standards Symposium - QS 5: Clinical Care

Access to the meeting is online via Zoom.

Quality Standard 5: Clinical Care

In 2025, Lantern Alliance will be running a series of comprehensive, online, symposiums designed to engage key stakeholders, industry professionals, and thought leaders in meaningful conversations about the challenges, opportunities, and best practices for implementing and complying with the strengthened Quality Standards.

Each monthly symposium will focus on one of the Quality Standards and its connection to the food, nutrition, and dining experience. As a part of each session, we will be hosting a panel session which will bring together leading experts, professionals, and residents to discuss the implications of the strengthened standards for aged care providers, carers, catering staff and of course residents. 

Quality Standard 6 – Food and Nutrition – 13 February 2025

Quality Standard 1 – The Person – 13 March 2025

Quality Standard 2 – The Organisation – 10 April 2025

Quality Standard 3 – Care and Services – 8 May 2025

Quality Standard 4 – The Environment – 12 June 2025

Quality Standard 5 – Clinical Care – 10 July 2025

Quality Standard 7 – The Residential Community – 14 August 2025

This Symposium will focus on Quality Standard 5: Clinical Care - through the lens of food, nutrition and dining experience.

QS 5 - INTENT

The Clinical Care Standard describes the responsibilities of providers to deliver safe and quality clinical care to older people. The governing body has overall responsibility to ensure a clinical governance framework is implemented and to monitor its effectiveness. Providers operationalise the clinical governance framework and report on its performance.

Many older people who require clinical care have multiple chronic co-morbidities and complex care needs. These people may be experiencing sickness, frailty, disability, cognitive impairment or be nearing the end of their life. Access to a range of health professionals is crucial to address these complex needs. Good clinical care can optimise an older person’s quality of life, reablement and maintenance of function. Improved health and wellbeing supports continued participation in activities that are enjoyable and give life meaning.

At all times, the clinical care provided should be person-centred. It should be planned and delivered in partnership with the older person, involving family, carers and others in line with the older person’s needs and preferences. Delivering safe, quality clinical care requires a multidisciplinary approach with a skilled workforce with clear accountabilities that are supported to deliver contemporary, evidence-based care. Allied health professionals have distinct roles in reablement and maintenance of an older person’s functional capabilities.

Effective implementation of Standard 5 is reliant on the systems and processes from Standards 1–7. Standard 5 does not seek to replicate the base expectation of understanding the person in Standard 1 or the base planning, assessment and delivery expectation of Standard 3 as an example. These systems and processes establish a baseline expectation which supports the delivery of person-centred and safe clinical care, ensuring that risks of harm to older people from clinical care are minimised and support continuous quality improvement.