Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research (QPS)

How our research is pioneering better and safer healthcare

The Centre for Quality and Safety Research (QPS) is one of four research domains within Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation and is embedded within Deakin's School of Nursing and Midwifery.

We improve the quality and safety of patient care through applied health services research. Our work is conducted in a well-established, distinctive and internationally renowned integrated health service partnership network.

The work of researchers within QPS spans health and aged care. Our research pillars of patient safety, patient experience and health workforce span the whole patient journey, and encompass residential, community, subacute and acute care settings.

Our research themes

The Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research is uniquely positioned within academic and healthcare environments to identify and rapidly respond to emerging complex care and patient safety issues. Our research programs are generated by the needs of the QPS health service partners and can be organised into the following focus areas.

Patient experience

Our research theme focuses on patients’ and family members’ experiences of health services to understand their perspectives and the processes of care delivery. Patient experience research is central to quality healthcare, alongside clinical effectiveness and safety.

Patient safety

Our research theme focuses on patient safety and minimising harm as part of improving the safety and quality of healthcare. Patient safety research has important implications for healthcare policy and practice across diverse settings, including acute, subacute, aged and community care, and consumer and health professional education.

Health workforce

Our research theme focuses on developing and evaluating innovations to improve the capacity, responsiveness and productivity of the health workforce. We examine the effective use of technologies such as telehealth to provide improved quality of care. Our research is conducted in partnership with the health sector to evaluate these initiatives.

Help us to improve patient wellbeing

Join us at QPS and be part of a team that’s striving to enhance patient experiences and patient health. Our projects focus on improving safety and healthcare outcomes by marrying research, education and practice to innovations in research and teaching.

Study with us

We feel immensely proud of the achievements of the QPS researchers in undertaking meaningful health research, generating and translating knowledge that contributes to the quality and safety of healthcare for the communities we serve.

Professor A. Hutchinson and Professor T. Bucknall

Co-Directors QPS

Our researchers

Alfred Deakin Professor Alison Hutchinson - Co-Director QPS

Alfred Deakin Professor Alison Hutchinson is Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University, an Alfred Deakin Professor of Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University and holds a Chair in Nursing at Barwon Health.

Her primary research interest centres on improving care through knowledge translation. As Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research she provides strategic direction for the Centre, comprising more than 40 scholars undertaking research in the areas of patient safety, patient experience and workforce development.

She has the distinction of being one of only a few Australian nurses to have successfully completed a formal postdoctoral fellowship program overseas, having trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Alfred Deakin Professor Tracey Bucknall - Co-Director QPS

Alfred Deakin Professor Tracey Bucknall is Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University, an Alfred Deakin Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University and Foundational Chair of Clinical Nursing and Director of Nursing Research, Alfred Health.

She is a pioneering decision scientist focused on improving clinical decision-making to enhance patient outcomes. As one of the first to study naturalistic decision-making, her understanding of the influences on clinical decisions has allowed her to innovatively develop and implement evidence-based interventions.

She has held five adjunct academic appointments, two of which are international and membership of numerous national policy committees, and international research and grant review panels.

Featured projects

QPS research priorities are on patient safety, the patient experience and improving the productivity of the health workforce.

Engaging patients and families in communication across transitions of care: an integrative review

Effective engagement and good communication with patients and their families and support people are key to ensuring safe transitions in care.

Communication and coordination processes supporting integrated transitional care: Australian healthcare practitioners’ perspectives

Identifying strengths and weaknesses in transitional care for older adults in an Australian setting.

Our partnerships

The QPS health service partners govern more than 30 acute and subacute hospitals, over 12 residential aged care services and employ approximately 30,000 nurses and midwives, providing care for more than 3 million Victorians annually.

QPS integrates the School of Nursing and Midwifery’s long-standing public and private health service partnerships with one of Australia’s largest schools of nursing and midwifery. QPS researchers are embedded within six major Victorian health services: