Australian Council on Healthcare Standards surveyor recommendations: analysis of compliance in the medical services.

This article reports on an analysis of hospitals surveyed by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) in 1990. The major areas found to require further attention within the medical services were quality assurance processes, mechanisms for appointments and delineation of clinical privileges and some lines of communication with other hospital staff/departments. Similar results also were found in an earlier ACHS analysis of 216 hospitals surveyed 1987-1989. Despite the highlighted areas of concern, 70% of medical services recommendations made at earlier surveys had been fully implemented and 15% partially implemented by hospitals at the time of their next survey in 1990.