23 - 24 February 2026, Grand Millennium, Auckland

Quality, safety & productivity in healthcare

Improving healthcare without compromise

In a resource constrained world, healthcare systems, and the professionals that work within them are constantly striving to improve their productivity and efficiency. However, it is essential that this is not achieved by compromising the quality and safety of the healthcare they provide.

This important new conference investigates the intersection of quality, safety, and productivity and provides practical guidance to healthcare teams into how we can achieve all three. By sharing global evidence from around the world, where health systems are all grappling with similar challenges.

And by disseminating the best existing practice from at home in New Zealand, this event will equip those attending with the tools and knowledge they need at a critical time.

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Key themes not to be missed

Strengthening Governance

See how strong frameworks and shared accountability lift safety and trust. Learn how clinical leaders manage risk and measure outcomes to improve care.

Advancing Quality, Safety and Equity

Explore practical ways to deliver fairer, safer care for all. Hear how Te Tiriti-led and culturally safe approaches drive real change.

Empowering and Protecting the Workforce

Put wellbeing at the centre of safety. Discover how teams are tackling burnout and supporting staff through change.

Technology for Better Care

Find out how AI, telehealth and data tools boost quality and productivity. Learn how smart tech reduces admin and frees time for patients.

Continuous Learning and Partnership

See how collaboration with whānau drive innovation. Explore systems that make quality improvement part of everyday care.

KEY SPEAKERS FOR 2026

Our 2026 key lineup brings together influential leaders, clinicians, and innovators driving change in the healthcare system.
Check out more today.

Peter Pronovost, MD

Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer

University Hospitals (USA)

Dr Jonathan Christiansen

Chair

New Zealand Clinical Senate

Morag McDowell

Commissioner

Health and Disability Commission

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We are currently working on the programme and agenda.
If you would like to have input into our research programme please email xxxx@brightstar.co.nz

Check out our other upcoming events

Auckland

Venue

The location and how you can get there

Address

Grand Millennium, Auckland
71 Mayoral Drive, Cnr Vincent Street,
Auckland 1010

Agenda

8:30	Registration and Coffee
8:50	Mihi whakatau
9:00	Welcoming remarks from Conference Chair
9:10	Outlining a clinical governance framework to provide accountability for the quality and safety of care and improve patient experience and outcomes How can organisations use and adapt Collaborating for quality: A framework for clinical governance to develop clinical governance systems which drive improvements in the quality and safety of care? Examining the four domains of quality which define the activities required to achieve quality, safety and equity of health and care services:Consumers and whānau are active partners, engaged, effective and culturally safe health workforce, clinically effective health care, System safety and learning Understanding the key system drivers which can support delivery of quality and safety: Delivering collaborative and coordinated care, ensuring inclusive leadership, monitoring and evaluation, the use of effective use of health technologies and data How can quality and safety leaders and teams deliver the critical dual role of both quality assurance and improvement? How can clinical teams work in partnership with managers to assess and monitor clinical risk, identify gaps, deliver improvement, ensure accountability and shape a culture of quality and safety?
9:50	The New Zealand Clinical Senate - Ensuring that the voices of those delivering care are central to decision-making Sharing the vision and purpose of the NZ Clinical Senate Delivering strategic advice on system-wide, cross discipline issues that impact the quality and efficiency of patient care Exploring how the NZ Clinical Senate will champion quality and safety issues to improve patient care and outcomes Unlocking our clinical potential: Identifying and addressing barriers to efficient delivery of quality healthcare – presenting the findings from the first meeting of the NZ Clinical Senate Associate Professor Jonathan Christiansen, Chair, New Zealand Clinical Senate
10:30	Morning refreshments
11:00	Using Human Factors approaches to improve the quality and safety of healthcare Examining the theory, principles and methods that underpin the scientific discipline of Human Factors which aims to optimise our understanding of the way people interact with the systems within which they work Using Human Factors approaches to design improvements that optimise both human wellbeing and system performance Recognising that the people and teams we work with are our key resources in ensuring quality and patient safety – how can we design our systems to make it easier for them? Embedding Human Factors approaches in a range of clinical care environments
11:40	Panel discussion: Answering tough questions about our ability to ensure the quality and safety of patients and deliver improvement in care in resource challenged operating environments How much of an impact are restricted resources having on quality and safety systems within healthcare currently? Are levels of clinical risk increasing? Do services have the capacity and capability to deliver improvement or does all effort have to be focused on simply maintaining BAU? What impact have restructures had on the system capability to deliver improvement, innovation and transformation? Do we have the capacity to support the delivery of the system level transformative shifts from treatment to prevention and from acute to community that have the potential to achieve long term financial sustainability? Do quality and safety teams have the capacity to support services to improve or are all efforts deployed in maintaining delivery of key clinical governance assurance and compliance exercises? What impact do focused Government targets around access have on the capacity of the system to deliver wider improvement and engagement? How can quality and safety teams support services to manage increased risk associated with rising levels of acuity in presentation
12:20	Improving the efficiency and productivity of care Understanding productivity and the need to utilise scarce resources as efficiently as possible as a key domain of health quality Can the system really do more with less without sacrificing standards? Exploring the evidence that the delivery of high-quality care can achieve increased clinical capacity and improve efficiency through the elimination of variation and the mainstreaming of best practice Releasing time to care – how can we support teams to improve productivity and quality through reducing administrative and documentation burdens Rationalising the measurement and monitoring performance - how do we avoid duplication, overlaps and underlaps in quality and safety activity and increase productivity? Exploring the system level enablers and transformative shifts that have the potential to support long term changes in health service efficiency and productivity Identifying the policies, processes and systems that can best support the health workforce to do the right things, for the right patients, at the right times, and in the right settings Taking a patient pathway and system view to address the fundamental drivers of productivity Technology driven productivity – exploring the tools available to improve efficiency and reduce administrative burdens Developing meaningful productivity measures, supported by quality metrics so that we can understand productivity trends and the drivers of productivity within service delivery settings
1:00	Lunch
2:00	Leveraging technology to improve quality, safety and productivity Ensuring that our quality and safety systems and improvement capabilities keep pace with rapid advancements in technology Maximising the use of AI for both productivity and quality improvement - how can it be harnessed in a way that frees people up for the high value work? Undertaking a risk analysis of the use of AI in the health sector Developing quality standards for the use of telehealth and remote consultations Working to ensure that we make insight and data the backbone for safety and quality Understanding cyber security as a clinical safety issue Exploring a range of patient safety technology solutions
2:40	Developing and deploying risk management approaches to ensure quality and safety Recognising that healthcare is a complex adaptive system with many interconnected parts that interact to create inevitable risks – why effective risk controls and an understanding of risk management is essential Developing mechanisms to monitor, identify, respond to and manage risk within your organisation Ensuring that you have well developed and clear systems in place for risk escalation and response Understanding the relationahip between enterprise risk and clinical risk in healthcare Putting in place to systems to manage and escalate clinical risk and identify signs of emergent clinical risks
3:20	Afternoon break
3:40	Delivering equity through quality, safety and clinical governance Reenforcing that equity approaches that acknowledge unjust variations in experience and outcomes requiring specific approaches for groups with different levels of advantage are still relevant and required in New Zealand healthcare How can quality and safety leaders ensure that their work gives effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and prioritises equitable outcomes for all the populations they serve? How can we ensure that care is clinically and culturally safe by working in partnership with whānau and incorporating their needs and expectations into service design and delivery? How can organisations demonstrate that they consider the needs, values and aspirations of iwi Māori in the development of clinical strategies? Identifying frameworks, methods and tools to monitor inequity to protect the health rights of Māori and whānau using health services?
4:25	Understanding healthcare workforce wellbeing improvement as a quality and safety intervention Recognising staff wellbeing as a proxy and prerequisite for patient safety Exploring the psychosocial risks that healthcare staff are routinely exposed to, including burnout, bullying and harassment, workplace violence and aggression Understanding your current health and safety obligations under existing legislation for the mental health and wellbeing for your staff Identifying controls and measures that can be put in place to prevent psychosocial risks from escalating into critical risks Exploring the concept of moral hazard and moral injury in healthcare Delivering supervision and support to clinical teams to enable delivery of quality standards and ensure wellbeing Maintaining the psychological safety of teams through restructure – have we sufficiently safeguarded the mental wellbeing of staff through the ongoing process of change within the health system? Putting in place effective post incident support for staff
5:00	Summary remarks from the Chair & Networking Drinks

9:00	Welcome back from Conference Chair
9:05	Health and Disability Commissioner Address: Lessons for the system from the work of the HDC Reflecting on HDC cases over the last 12 months and identifying current challenges for healthcare practitioners and the public Analysing trends in the complaints received by the HDC – what do these tell us about the key quality and safety issues within New Zealand healthcare Identifying lessons for the system in the way they manage quality and safety and in the way they respond to incidents and complaints What lessons can we learn from the way other health systems manage and support general practice ownership and delivery? Morag McDowell, Commissioner, Health and Disability Commission
9.50	Global quality and safety leader keynote: Delivering on the promise of improvement and change Has the global healthcare quality and patient safety movement delivered on its potential – have we seen the large-scale improvements we would hope to have seen? Why have known solutions failed to be widely mainstreamed and why hasn’t variation been eliminated by the worst performing systems learning from the best? How can we better harness the power of improvement science and safety science to deliver the changes needed? How can you help build capability within the system to deliver transformational change? Exploring why and how it is possible to achieve the seemingly impossible and both improve quality of care and reduce costs Peter Pronovost, MD, Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer, University Hospitals (USA) & President, UH Veale Healthcare Transformation Institute
10:30	Morning refreshments
11:00	Improving our complaints management, incident response and patient experience by the use of restorative approaches which learn from harm Ensuring that when things go wrong the way we respond following an adverse event doesn’t compound the harm Explaining the basic principles of a restorative response and outlining the benefits of employing a restorative framework to address harm, meet needs, restore trust, prevent repetition, and promote repair Examining Māori models of restorative practice and patient support Leveraging the patient and whanau experience - Shaping better care through patient stories and leadership Ensuring that measures of patient experience, consumer and whānau lived experience and patient-reported outcomes are used to inform quality improvement initiatives
11:40	Working in partnership with consumers, whānau and communities to deliver safe, skilled and compassionate consumer and whānau-centred care Recognising the importance of active engagement with communities, patients consumers and whānau - ensuring that we are providing them with greater control over the design of health the services they rely on How can we best ensure the involvement of consumers at all levels of clinical governance and quality improvement systems within the system to make sure that services are meeting their needs? Understanding how effective clinical governance and quality and safety systems can act as enablers allowing health services to be more responsive to the needs of the communities they serve Analysing the code of expectations for health entities’ engagement with consumers and whānau and the expectations it sets for how health entities must work with consumers, whānau and communities in the planning, design, delivery and evaluation of health services Sharing examples of effective co-design in action demonstrating the active support of Māori and other key consumer groups in the co-production and co-design of health care
12:20	Improving the value of clinical audit for quality improvement Ensuring effective regular clinical audit programmes are in place to allow benchmarking of care standards, to assess best practice and support ongoing quality improvement activity Using systematic, critical analysis to assess the quality of healthcare by comparing actual practice against established standards to identify gaps and improve patient outcomes Utilising audit to highlight good care as well as pin-pointing sub-standard and unsafe care Identifying the best proven clinical audit techniques that enhance patient care and promote professional development Identifying the best proven clinical audit techniques that enhance patient care and promote professional development Ensuring that the information gained through audit is used productively to drive quality improvements, improve care and prevent further incidents and is not simply a tick box exercise Examining approaches for taking results from clinical audit and turning these into effective actions
1:00	Lunch
2:00	Increasing our ability to learn, heal and deliver improve following adverse events Implementing a clearly defined system for reporting, investigating and managing all levels of adverse events Recognising that past approaches to reporting and learning from adverse events did not result in anticipated reductions in the frequency of incident or severity of harm caused Exploring the National Adverse Events Policy 2023 - a national framework for health and disability providers to continually improve the quality and safety of services Understanding the process for reporting to Te Tāhū Hauora and scope of harm and near miss incidents that must be notified Building incident and adverse event risk management policy and processes and maintaining systems that enable reporting, healing, learning and improvement Using the information gathered from investigations and learning reviews to strengthen system safety and quality improvement approaches
2:40	Patient Safety & Clinical Risk Updates In this series crucial clinical updates, experts will examine a range of key clinical risk areas allowing attendees to keep up to date. They will present the latest guidance and standards available that identify clinical best practice as well as delivering an analysis of effective evidence-based patient safety interventions, proven quality improvement initiatives and technology solutions that can make a difference. Covering the following areas: Infection prevention and control Medicines management Falls prevention Primary Care Patient deterioration and sepsis Mentail health Aged care Mental health
4:00	Summary remarks from the Chair & end of Conference