Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research

How our research is pioneering better and safer healthcare

The Centre for Quality and Safety Research (QPS) is one of five 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.

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Our research pillars

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 are organised into the following focus areas.

Patient experience

Patients’ and family members’ experiences of health services to understand their perspectives and the processes of care delivery.

Patient safety

Minimising harm as part of improving the safety and quality of healthcare.

Health workforce

Developing and evaluating innovations to improve the capacity, responsiveness and productivity of the health workforce.

Help us to improve the quality and safety of patient care

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 combining research, education and practice with 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.

Deakin Distinguished Professor A. Hutchinson and Deakin Distinguished Professor T. Bucknall

Co-Directors QPS

Our co-directors

Deakin Distinguished 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.

Deakin Distinguished 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.

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

QPS integrates long-standing public and private health service partnerships with one of Australia’s largest schools of nursing and midwifery. The QPS health service partners govern 37 acute and subacute care hospitals and 12 residential aged care services, employ approximately 33,000 nurses and midwives, and provide care for more than 3 million Victorians annually.

QPS researchers are embedded within six major Victorian health services: