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Healthcare Management vocabulary · Health Systems and Governance

Clinical governance

Meaning in healthcare management, with examples

nounCommon term

In healthcare management, clinical governance means: The system through which a healthcare organisation is held responsible for improving the quality of its services and keeping high standards of care.

In Turkish: klinik yönetişim

How it is used

Introduced in the UK NHS in the late 1990s and now used widely. It brings together audit, risk management, guidelines, staff training and patient involvement. Hospitals have clinical governance committees and leads who report to the board.

Example sentences

  1. The incident will be discussed at next month's clinical governance meeting.

  2. Strong clinical governance helped the hospital pass its inspection.

Common collocations

  • clinical governance committee
  • clinical governance framework
  • clinical governance lead
  • clinical governance meeting
  • clinical auditA review that compares the care actually given with agreed standards, so that gaps can be found, practice changed and the results checked again.
  • quality improvementA planned, continuous effort to make care safer, more effective and more efficient by measuring results, testing changes and learning from them.
  • patient safetyThe prevention of avoidable harm to patients during care, through safe systems, clear procedures and a culture of learning from mistakes.
  • risk assessmentA careful look at what could cause harm in a task, place or situation, how likely and serious that harm is, and what controls are needed to reduce it.

More terms: Health Systems and Governance

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.