Clinical Governance and Continuous Improvement -Supporting Infection Prevention and Control in Aged Care

Wednesday 20 May 2026, 2.00PM AEST

Speaker: Catherine McGovern

Clinical Governance and Continuous Improvement -Supporting Infection Prevention and Control in Aged Care

This presentation will focus on how clinical governance and continuous improvement (CI) help support infection prevention and control (IPC) systems in aged care.

Clinical governance ensures that care is evidence based, delivered safely and effectively, while IPC focuses on preventing and managing infections.

Together, they form the foundation for high-quality care.

The presentation will explain how strong leadership and IPC systems can support safe, quality clinical care and good health outcomes for older people.

It will also include identifying assurance activities that can enhance IPC practices, identifying infection risks, creating a safe care environment.

The importance of regular evaluation  to measure  effectiveness and ensure continuous quality improvement will also be discussed including  providing examples of reporting IPC results to the Clinical Governance Committee and Board, ensuring accountability, transparency, and ongoing improvements.

Objectives

• Outline how clinical governance and CI support effective IPC in aged care.
• Identify leadership and assurance activities that strengthen IPC systems.
• Describe methods for identifying and managing infection risks.

Explain how IPC monitoring and reporting support accountability and improvement

About the speaker: Catherine is the Manager of Governance Strategy and Clinical Development at Bene Aged Care, responsible for implementing evidence-based, best-practice clinical care across the organisation’s aged care services. Her role includes Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) policy development, provision of specialist IPC advice and education, and ongoing mentorship of IPC lead nurses to support effective clinical governance.

A registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience, Catherine has worked extensively across acute and aged care settings, with a strong professional focus on IPC and client safety. She was recognised in the South Australian State Parliament by the Minister for Health for her leadership as Infection Control Outbreak Coordinator during the successful containment of a COVID-19 outbreak at Brompton Aged Care in November 2020.

Catherine also contributed as an expert participant in interviews led by Adjunct Professor Alan Lilly for the Independent Review of COVID-19 Outbreaks in Australian Residential Aged Care Facilities. She is a longstanding member of the SA Health Network of Infection Control Teams (SANIT), including the Non-acute Infection Control Special Interest Group (NICSIG), and serves on the Developing the Profession and Scientific Conference Committees.

To register for this webinar, please click the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uTmi3DOXT5G7rZ5D81I2Ww