Why this matters for your practice
Continuous quality improvement is not optional decoration. It is mandatory evidence for RACGP accreditation, and it is one of the areas surveyors probe hardest, because it is easy to claim and hard to fake. A practice can have a polished quality improvement policy and still fail, because what assessors want is proof of a completed improvement cycle: data, a change, and a re-measurement that shows what happened.
CQI is also where ClinicComply's product and the RACGP Standards meet most directly, because the obligation is fundamentally about keeping organised, time-stamped evidence.
What the RACGP Standards require
Under the RACGP Standards, quality improvement sits in its own module. The key obligations include:
- A named team member with primary responsibility for leading quality improvement (Criterion QI1.1).
- Evidence of at least one quality improvement activity that demonstrates a complete cycle.
- A whole-of-team approach, with quality improvement and patient safety information shared across the practice and feedback sought from the team.
These obligations carry through the move from the 5th to the 6th edition of the Standards, with the 6th edition continuing to expect demonstrable improvement activity.
What counts as a CQI activity
A CQI activity is anything that closes a genuine improvement loop. The most common evidence types are:
- A clinical audit, measuring practice against a standard and re-measuring after a change.
- A PDSA cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act), the iterative method assessors recognise.
- A significant event analysis, learning systematically from a single important event.
- Acting on patient feedback and demonstrating the resulting change.
The CQI cycle (what surveyors look for)
Surveyors look for a full cycle, documented end to end: collect baseline data, identify the improvement, make a specific change, re-measure to see whether it worked, and embed it. Dates, the person responsible, and the measured outcome are what turn an activity into accreditation evidence.
Common mistakes
- A policy with no evidence. The document is not the activity.
- No re-measurement. A change without a follow-up measurement is not a complete cycle.
- One-and-done. CQI is continuous; assessors expect ongoing activity, not a single audit before the visit.
- No QI lead. The Standards expect a named person responsible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is continuous quality improvement in general practice?
Continuous quality improvement is the ongoing process of using practice data and feedback to identify a problem, make a change, and measure whether it improved care. In general practice it is a core RACGP Standards requirement, evidenced through activities such as clinical audits, PDSA cycles, and significant event analyses.
What counts as a quality improvement activity for RACGP accreditation?
A quality improvement activity is any completed improvement cycle, most commonly a clinical audit, a PDSA cycle, a significant event analysis, or a documented response to patient feedback. Assessors want to see baseline data, a change, and a re-measurement, not just a policy.
How many QI activities do I need each year?
The RACGP Standards expect practices to demonstrate at least one clinical quality improvement activity every 12 months. In practice, a strong accreditation submission shows ongoing activity across the cycle rather than a single audit completed just before the assessment.
Go deeper
Last reviewed