Overview: about the agency

Our strate­gic focus

Our pur­pose	To pro­vide strate­gic lead­er­ship and advice on excel­lence and inno­va­tion in healthcare. We part­ner with con­sumers, car­ers, the wider com­mu­ni­ty and the health work­force to improve care and safe­ty, mon­i­tor per­for­mance, and cham­pi­on evi­dence-based prac­tice to improve health outcomes.
Our Vision	Togeth­er, cre­at­ing health and pros­per­i­ty for all.
Our Val­ues	Our val­ues and the way we work: Empa­thy – We cul­ti­vate curios­i­ty about oth­ers and active­ly chal­lenge bias. Col­lab­o­ra­tion – We are inclu­sive, share, and lever­age the pow­er of diversity. Learn­ing – We cel­e­brate suc­cess, learn from mis­takes and fail­ure, and active­ly seek feedback. We take own­er­ship and respon­si­bil­i­ty for out­comes, words, and actions.
Our func­tions and objectives	Our core func­tion­al areas: Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Partnerships Clin­i­cal Infor­mat­ics and Innovation Office of the Commissioner Our pri­or­i­ties: Equi­table access to care — Design sys­tems that reduce vari­a­tion in expe­ri­ence and out­comes of care. Empow­ered con­sumers — Engage con­sumers, car­ers and com­mu­ni­ty in design, deliv­ery, and eval­u­a­tion of services. Envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty — Reduce sys­tem impact on cli­mate change and iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties to adapt to its impact. Work­force sus­tain­abil­i­ty — Advo­cate for safe healthy, thriv­ing work­places and facil­i­tate a sys­tem lev­el approach to work­place wellbeing. Eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty — Con­tribute to improve­ment in the social gra­di­ent and its impact on health outcomes. Our approach: Grow net­works and part­ner­ships — We bring peo­ple togeth­er to solve prob­lems, con­nect­ing clin­i­cians, con­sumers, and the com­mu­ni­ty so that they can achieve ​‘bet­ter’ together. Deliv­er insights — We use a data dri­ven approach to facil­i­tate dis­cus­sions, under­stand impact, deliv­er insight, and gen­er­ate action. Pro­vide advice and con­sul­ta­tion — We pro­vide advice, encour­age diverse ways of think­ing, and facil­i­tate safe spaces to be creative. Enable sys­tem improve­ment and inno­va­tion — We seek cre­ative solu­tions to dri­ve excel­lence and inno­va­tion in practice. Build capa­bil­i­ty — We cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple to learn new skills and sup­port the mind­sets that allow inno­va­tion and research to happen.

Our organ­i­sa­tion­al structure

Notes

• The CEIH is an attached agency to the Depart­ment for Health and Well­be­ing (DHW).
• The Patient Report­ed Mea­sures Pro­gram is exter­nal­ly fund­ed report­ing through to the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Partnerships.
• Two research staff are exter­nal­ly fund­ed through Med­ical Research Future Fund and report to the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Clin­i­cal Infor­mat­ics and Innovation.

Changes to the agency

Dur­ing 2023 – 24 the fol­low­ing changes occurred:

• Dr Michael Cusack served as Inter­im Com­mis­sion­er for the peri­od 5 Decem­ber 2022 to 2 Octo­ber 2023.
• Prof Kei­th McNeil appoint­ed as Com­mis­sion­er on 3 Octo­ber 2023.
• The Health Chief Exec­u­tives’ Coun­cil (HCEC) Clin­i­cal Coun­cil was estab­lished on 24 June 2024. The CEIH pro­vides sec­re­tari­at func­tion for the HCEC Clin­i­cal Coun­cil and Work­force Well­be­ing subcommittee.
• The Clin­i­cal Advi­so­ry Coun­cil and the Clin­i­cal Net­work Exec­u­tive Group ceased, and their func­tions were trans­ferred to the new­ly estab­lished HCEC Clin­i­cal Council.

Our Min­is­ter

Hon Chris Pic­ton MP is the Min­is­ter for Health and Well­be­ing in South Australia.

The Min­is­ter over­sees health, well­be­ing, men­tal health, age­ing well, sub­stance abuse and sui­cide prevention.

Our Exec­u­tive team

Pro­fes­sor Kei­th McNeil
Com­mis­sion­er

Prof Kei­th McNeil is a health­care leader with a 42-year career spent on the front­lines of patient care and dri­ving sys­tems inno­va­tion. Kei­th joined the CEIH from his posi­tion as Chief Med­ical Offi­cer of Queens­land Health in Octo­ber 2023. He has pre­vi­ous­ly served in senior lead­er­ship roles in the health sec­tor, includ­ing Chief Clin­i­cal Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer roles in the Queens­land Health and the NHS, hos­pi­tal and health ser­vice CEO roles in Queens­land and Cam­bridge UK, and as Act­ing Deputy Direc­tor Gen­er­al of Clin­i­cal Excel­lence Queens­land.

Katie Billing
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Partnerships

The Con­sumer and Clin­i­cal Part­ner­ships direc­torate is focused on devel­op­ing sys­tems to build and nur­ture the rela­tion­ships between clin­i­cians, com­mu­ni­ties, con­sumers and car­ers and oth­ers who work in the health sys­tem. These part­ner­ships help improve expe­ri­ences, fos­ter inno­va­tion and ulti­mate­ly lead to bet­ter health outcomes.

Tina Hardin
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Clin­i­cal Informatics

The Clin­i­cal Infor­mat­ics Direc­torate focuss­es on improv­ing how data and ana­lyt­ics are used to improve health­care, build­ing capa­bil­i­ty in clin­i­cal infor­mat­ics and pro­vid­ing bet­ter access to data across the health sys­tem to inform the cre­ation of bet­ter health care.

Com­mit­tees

The HCEC Clin­i­cal Coun­cil reports to the HCEC ​‘Main Strate­gic’ group. It is the peak clin­i­cal body respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing clin­i­cal engage­ment and input into statewide and strate­gic deci­sions that affect clin­i­cal care in South Aus­tralia. The over­ar­ch­ing pur­pose is to: 

• Pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions and inde­pen­dent and impar­tial strate­gic advice about sys­tem-wide issues that affect qual­i­ty, afford­abil­i­ty, effi­cien­cy, access, equi­ty, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of patient care. 
• Review and pro­vide advice on the sys­tem-wide clin­i­cal impacts of pro­posed changes to patient care (e.g. mod­els of care, plan­ning and deliv­ery of health ser­vices etc.). 
• Pro­vide a forum for Local Health Net­works, Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works, Statewide Clin­i­cal Com­mu­ni­ties of Prac­tice, and oth­er clin­i­cal groups to work togeth­er on com­plex sys­tem-wide issues, share best prac­tice, and learn and sup­port each other. 
• Pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for broad­er sys­tem-wide clin­i­cal col­lab­o­ra­tion on com­plex sys­tem-wide issues (e.g. sec­tor wide ses­sions or forums on pri­or­i­ty issues). 
• Fos­ter a cul­ture of excel­lence and inno­va­tion with­in the health system.

The HCEC Work­force Well­be­ing Sub-com­mit­tee pro­vides strate­gic direc­tion and gov­er­nance over­sight to improve­ments in work­place well­be­ing cul­ture and work­er well­be­ing across the South Aus­tralian pub­lic health sys­tem. The Sub-Com­mit­tee func­tions as a coor­di­na­tion point for the health sys­tem. It has the author­i­ty to pri­ori­tise and induce col­lec­tive action to address local­ly iden­ti­fied, com­plex, and sys­tem-wide issues that are affect­ing the abil­i­ty of clin­i­cal and non-clin­i­cal lead­ers to cre­ate healthy, safe, and thriv­ing work­places.

The Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers is a dynam­ic group of health­care con­sumers and car­ers who are engaged in the work of the CEIH. Mem­ber­ship of the Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers includes con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tives who are mem­bers of our Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works and con­sumers who have been engaged to sup­port the deliv­ery of spe­cif­ic projects and ini­tia­tives. The Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers meets reg­u­lar­ly, sup­port­ed by the CEIH, to pro­vide a forum for them to share their expe­ri­ences of assist­ing health sys­tem change, pro­vide sup­port to each oth­er, and to be informed about health sys­tem changes, ini­tia­tives, and oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Statewide Clin­i­cal Networks

Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works are groups of health pro­fes­sion­als, health ser­vice organ­i­sa­tions, con­sumers and car­ers who work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with the goal of clin­i­cal ser­vice redesign for high qual­i­ty care. They oper­ate across the con­tin­u­um of care, across pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tors and Local Health Networks.

Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works are estab­lished to achieve two main func­tions: devel­op a net­work of clin­i­cians, con­sumers and the com­mu­ni­ty with an inter­est in a spe­cif­ic area in health, and to resolve iden­ti­fied prob­lems that will lead to sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in health out­comes for South Aus­tralians. Each net­work has a clin­i­cal and/​or con­sumer lead and a steer­ing com­mit­tee to devel­op the vision, goals and work pro­gram for the net­work.

The CEIH assists in the estab­lish­ment of Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works and pro­vides resources to man­age and inform clin­i­cal inno­va­tion and improve­ment projects with the focus of build­ing the capa­bil­i­ty of the mem­bers to nav­i­gate the pol­i­cy and prac­tice envi­ron­ment of gov­ern­ment and oth­er parts of the health sys­tem. The CEIH’s Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work Mod­el for Tran­si­tion and Capa­bil­i­ty Devel­op­ment Frame­work pro­vide a capac­i­ty build­ing mech­a­nism with a view to long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty and growth sys­tem-wide.

Once they are estab­lished and have devel­oped strong con­nec­tions, Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works tran­si­tion to a Statewide Clin­i­cal Com­mu­ni­ties of Prac­tice.
Eight Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works have been estab­lished with the CEIH and these are detailed below along with their goals.

The Can­cer Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve health out­comes for all South Aus­tralians affect­ed by can­cer by:

• Focus­ing on com­pas­sion­ate and equi­table care
• Work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships with key stake­hold­ers across the entire can­cer continuum
• Build­ing on lat­est evi­dence to dri­ve excel­lence and innovation
• Dri­ving improve­ments in safe­ty, qual­i­ty and patient experience
• Pro­vid­ing strate­gic exper­tise and advice on can­cer care

The Car­di­ol­o­gy Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve car­di­ol­o­gy ser­vices for the South Aus­tralian com­mu­ni­ty through:

• Ensur­ing equi­table access to com­pre­hen­sive, evi­dence based car­dio­vas­cu­lar care, aimed at reduc­ing the bur­den of car­dio­vas­cu­lar disease
• Devel­op­ing a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary, high­ly skilled, inclu­sive work­force deliv­er­ing best pos­si­ble outcomes
• Using com­pre­hen­sive, high-qual­i­ty data to assist ser­vice plan­ning and dri­ve con­tin­u­ous qual­i­ty improvement
• Inno­vat­ing in and imple­ment­ing new or improved mod­els of patient-focused care
• Sup­port­ing a con­nect­ed and engaged work­force that is respon­sive to patient needs and deliv­er high qual­i­ty care, teach­ing and research at all levels

The Pal­lia­tive Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve access, equi­ty and care to South Aus­tralians requir­ing pal­lia­tive care ser­vices by:

• Increas­ing aware­ness of advanced care plan­ning and bereave­ment services
• Devel­op­ing bet­ter health lit­er­a­cy in the community
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to improve data collection
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to cre­ate a Pal­lia­tive Care Plan for South Australia

The Urgent Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing urgent, unplanned, non‑life threat­en­ing care by:

• Cham­pi­oning clin­i­cal­ly appro­pri­ate care at the right place in the right timeframe
• Link­ing con­sumers with appro­pri­ate hos­pi­tal alter­na­tive services
• Improv­ing access to urgent care for con­sumers aged over 75, those suf­fer­ing from men­tal health emer­gen­cies and peo­ple liv­ing in rur­al areas who require ser­vices in metro areas
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing to aug­ment mod­els of Urgent Care in South Australia

The Chron­ic Pain Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to:

• Fos­ter improved recog­ni­tion and under­stat­ing of chron­ic pain and its effec­tive man­age­ment in the community
• Fos­ter sys­tems devel­op­ment to enable trans­par­ent shar­ing of data which can sup­port cross-sec­tor ser­vice design, deliv­ery and collaboration
• Sup­port improve­ments in com­mu­ni­ty, pri­ma­ry health and hos­pi­tal set­tings to ensure time­ly access to evi­dence informed care for all South Aus­tralians liv­ing with pain
• Build an inte­grat­ed Com­mu­ni­ty of Prac­tice that opti­mis­es the expe­ri­ence and out­comes of chron­ic pain management

The Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing young peo­ple to access care which:

• Meets their needs
• Empow­ers them to have an ongo­ing say in its devel­op­ment and evaluation
• Is eas­i­ly accessible
• Is con­tin­u­ous­ly improving
• Is seam­less across all providers of healthcare

The net­work aims to:

• Improve access to services
• Pro­vide seam­less tran­si­tion, qual­i­ty and deliv­ery of care to young people
• Ensure young peo­ple are part of the sys­tem and design
• Improve qual­i­ty

The Sur­gi­cal and Peri­op­er­a­tive Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims to improve the sur­gi­cal expe­ri­ence and out­comes for all South Aus­tralians by:

• Ensur­ing equi­table access 
• Appro­pri­ate­ness and effi­cien­cy across their sur­gi­cal journey
• Decrease the require­ment for sur­gi­cal services

The Clin­i­cal Genomics Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work aims for the South Aus­tralian genomics com­mu­ni­ty to work togeth­er to pro­vide the best pos­si­ble health care for South Aus­tralians by:

• Deliv­er­ing high qual­i­ty care for peo­ple through a per­son-cen­tred approach to genomics 
• Work­force: build­ing a skilled work­force that is lit­er­ate in genomics 
• Finance and infra­struc­ture: ensur­ing sus­tain­able and strate­gic invest­ment in cost-effec­tive genomics 
• Ser­vices: max­imis­ing qual­i­ty, safe­ty and clin­i­cal util­i­ty of genomics in health care
• Data: respon­si­ble col­lec­tion, stor­age, use and man­age­ment of genom­ic data
• Inno­va­tion: estab­lish inno­v­a­tive projects that put South Aus­tralia at the fore­front of genomics

Read about the agen­cy’s performance