About the Framework
Understanding the Specialist Practice Quality Framework - why it exists, who it is for, and where it comes from.
About the Framework
General practices have had the RACGP Standards and a well-established accreditation pathway for over 30 years. Specialist medical practices have nothing equivalent. There is no mandatory practice-level accreditation, no agreed quality benchmark, and no widely recognised framework for how a specialist practice should be run.
That does not mean quality does not matter. It means nobody has made it easy.
Most specialist practices are small businesses run by clinicians who trained in medicine, not management. Practice managers are expected to handle clinical governance, infection control, privacy compliance, workplace safety, staff management, and patient experience - often without a structured framework to guide what "good" looks like. The result is that many practices are doing excellent work but cannot demonstrate it, while others have gaps they may not even be aware of.
This framework changes that. It gives specialist medical practices a clear, practical benchmark for quality and safety - one designed specifically for the way specialist practices operate, not adapted from hospital standards or borrowed from general practice.
How to use this framework
Self-assess.
Work through each domain and its quality statements. For each indicator, record whether your practice currently meets it, partially meets it, or has a gap.
Prioritise.
You do not need to address everything at once. Identify the highest-risk gaps and the quick wins. Build a realistic improvement plan with timelines and responsibilities.
Implement.
Make the changes, update your policies, train your team, and collect the evidence.
Review.
Revisit your self-assessment annually. Quality is not a destination - it is a cycle.
Why accredit voluntarily?
There is no legal requirement for specialist practices to hold practice-level accreditation. So why bother?
For your patients
Patients increasingly research their healthcare providers. A visible commitment to quality standards builds trust before they walk through the door. It tells referring GPs that your practice meets a recognised benchmark.
For your team
A quality framework gives your staff clarity about expectations and processes. It reduces reliance on individual knowledge, which matters when people go on leave, change roles, or move on. It makes onboarding faster and incidents less likely.
For your practice
Accreditation is structured risk management. It helps you identify gaps before they become complaints, claims, or regulatory problems. It creates a documented trail that demonstrates due diligence. And it positions your practice as one that takes governance seriously in a market where very few can make that claim.
For your business
Private health insurers, medical indemnity providers, and health departments are all moving toward greater expectations of governance in specialist settings. Practices that already have a framework in place will be ahead of the curve when those expectations formalise.
This framework is self-assessed. There is no external surveyor, no inspection visit, no fee barrier. You work through the standards at your own pace, identify where you are strong and where you have gaps, and build an improvement plan. If you want to, you can display your commitment publicly. The point is progress, not perfection.
Who this is for
This framework is written for practice managers and practice owners of specialist medical practices in Australia. That includes any practice where patients are seen by referral - whether it is a solo dermatologist, a multi-specialist surgical group, a cardiology practice with an attached procedure suite, or a psychiatry clinic.
It is not designed for hospitals, day hospitals with separate accreditation obligations, or general practices (which already have the RACGP Standards).
Sources and acknowledgements
The SPQF draws on several published frameworks and sources. Attribution should be visible, honest, and specific - this builds credibility and satisfies the licence conditions of the sources used.
Care Quality Commission - Single Assessment Framework
Domain structure informed by the Care Quality Commission Single Assessment Framework, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
World Health Organization - Quality of Care Framework
Quality dimensions informed by the World Health Organization Framework for Quality of Care (WHO, 2018).
ACSQHC - NSQHS Standards
Contextualised for specialist medical practice settings with reference to the principles of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (ACSQHC, 2021).
RACGP Standards for General Practices (5th Edition)
Informed by the principles (but not the content) of the RACGP Standards for General Practices, 5th Edition (RACGP, 2020).
How to cite this framework
The Specialist Practice Quality Framework is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY 4.0). You are free to use, adapt, and share this framework for any purpose, including commercial use, provided you give appropriate credit to spqf.au.
Specialist Practice Quality Framework (Version 1.0). (2026). spqf.au. https://spqf.au
Specialist Practice Quality Framework [Internet]. Version 1.0. 2026 [cited 2026 Mar 4]. Available from: https://spqf.au
Specialist Practice Quality Framework, version 1.0, published at spqf.au under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
About Clinically
Clinically is an Australian health technology company that builds tools to solve everyday practice problems for specialists. It initiated the SPQF to address a long-standing gap: specialist practices have no equivalent of the RACGP Standards and no structured pathway to demonstrate quality at the practice level.
Clinically also develops Clinically Ready, a practice management platform that provides the tools - policies, audit templates, registers, and improvement plans - to implement the SPQF in day-to-day operations. The framework and the product are designed to complement each other, but neither depends on the other.
The Specialist Practice Quality Framework is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence and is independent of any commercial product. It is free to use, adapt, and share. Clinically initiated it; the sector owns it.
Join the conversation
The SPQF is a living framework shaped by the people who use it. Share how you are implementing it, ask questions, suggest improvements, and learn from other specialist practices across Australia.
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