Embedding quality improvement in the culture

Embedding quality improvement in the culture

Located about 40 km south of Cairns in the Yarrabah Aboriginal community, Gindaja Treatment and Healing Centre, an Indigenous corporation, has been providing alcohol and drug rehabilitation services since 1980. It offers a residential program for up to 19 clients (men and women) and a non-residential day program.

With 38 staff, the centre aims to provide the highest quality of treatment and individual care by changing and/or influencing the attitude and behaviour of clients throughout the treatment process.

In 2010, Gindaja was one of the first Aboriginal drug rehabilitation service providers in Australia to become ISO 9001 accredited.

Ailsa Lively has been the CEO since 2008.

Why choose LogiqcQMS?

In 2009-10, the federal government funding body made it a requirement for indigenous organisations providing Aboriginal medical services (AMSs) or alcohol and other drug services (AODs) to be formally accredited. We really embraced it.

We were always committed as an organisation to quality improvement, looking to do things in a better way. But back then the language of quality was new to us, although we’d been doing it.

We were lucky enough to have the Logiqc team assist us with the ISO 9001 audit. They developed a spreadsheet for our accreditation and it worked well. Then in 2010 they developed LogiqcQMS and it made it much easier for us. So we were one of the first to use it.

Implementing LogiqcQMS

It was very exciting having a web-based program. We embraced change and new ideas, and the system and the passionate people at LogiqcQMS assisted us through that.

All the AMSs in Far North Queensland were implementing LogiqcQMS at the same time. Together we were the first cluster in Australia to be fully accredited.

Staying on top of compliance

At Gindaja, quality improvement is a must and we live by it. LogiqcQMS has made it easy for us to stay on top of all our requirements, especially around governance, contracts, risk, compliance, licensing and auditing. The Board can be at ease that there’s no risk around compliance. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a QMS.

Accreditation is smooth with all staff engaged in quality improvement

With all of our documents in one place, our main benefit is having a system that assists us with our accreditation process. Auditors are quite surprised, they’ve told us, that we use the system to full capacity, which makes their job easier—it’s all ready for them to look at. They did an analysis and were surprised at the [high] number of documents in our system and the really low percentage of overdue tasks. It shows that the system is user-friendly and embedded into our culture. At every meeting in Gindaja, the LogiqcQMS meeting tab is used; in our full staff meeting every 2 weeks, we use LogiqcQMS to look at the agenda and to see what’s coming up or overdue. Having staff engaged is really beneficial.

The new version with the dashboard is heaven sent—it’s just so user-friendly. It has made life much easier.

Being able to access LogiqcQMS from anywhere in the world is also an advantage. During COVID-19, having a web-based system means we can work from home. Succession planning also benefits.

LogiqcQMS is easy for new staff to use and all information about the organisation is to hand

As LogicqQMS grows, our quality improvement culture grows

As new registers come, we take them on. We grow with the system. As well as making us "quality secure", it makes our job so much easier and makes it easier to embed a quality improvement culture. 

By November 2022 we’ll need to be accredited against the new National Quality Framework for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services. We’re hoping LogiqcQMS will add the standard to our Accreditation Register.