All Queensland healthcare providers, including individuals and organisations, have a legal duty to establish, maintain and implement reasonable processes to improve the quality of their health services. This duty is outlined in section 20 of the           Health Quality and Complaints Commission Act 2006. We call this the provider’s 'duty to improve' (or section 20).

In assessing a healthcare provider’s compliance with their duty to improve, we may consider:

• compliance with our healthcare standards 
• compliance with the National safety and quality health service standards (the national standards)
• accreditation by a body we consider competent to award accreditation
• any other information we consider relevant, including complaints information and other information about provider performance.

If we consider a healthcare provider is failing to comply with their duty to improve, in line with our responsive regulation approach, we may:

• advise the provider of the breach, make recommendations and monitor improvement
• issue a show cause notice
• prepare a report for the provider and/or another entity, such as their employer, the Chief Health Officer, State Coroner, registration board, professional association, or the Minister for Health
• ask the Minister for Health to table that report in Parliament, or
• refer the matter to another entity with the powers to investigate or deal with the contravention.