The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners congratulates Whangarei’s Rust Ave Medical Centre for being the first practice to receive accreditation for completing the College’s new Cornerstone quality programme.
Completing Cornerstone allows general practices to show their continuous commitment to patient safety and care, and a safe, efficient workplace.
The College sets and maintains national quality standards through two programmes - Foundation and Cornerstone - and these new look programmes were launched on 1 April 2020.
To achieve accreditation, Rust Ave Medical Centre completed the new Foundation Standard and the two new core Cornerstone modules in Continuous Quality Improvement and Equity.
The Foundation Standard consists of requirements that are essential for all general practices in New Zealand and lets practices measure their current quality of care and progress towards health equity.
The new Cornerstone programme shows a practice is committed to improving health outcomes. The College is proud to be the first organisation to develop an equity-focused primary care module, that demonstrates how practices can work to improve health outcomes by targeting individual and cultural needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
The Centre's practice manager Nadine Whitton says, "Now all the groundwork is over, the practice is really looking forward to putting their pro-equity work into full motion."
In the days prior to the lockdown, a member of the College’s Quality Programmes team visited the centre to award them with their accreditation certificate.