The Communicating for Safety Standard aims to ensure timely, purpose-driven and effective communication and documentation that support continuous, coordinated and safe care for patients.

This standard recognises that effective communication is needed throughout patients’ care and identifies high-risk times when effective communication is critical. It describes the systems and processes to support effective communication at all transitions of care: when critical information emerges or changes; to ensure correct patient identification and procedure matching; and to ensure essential information is documented in the patient’s healthcare record.