The purpose of the paper is to ascertain which areas of a 2009 Department of Health hospital clinical governance framework requires refreshing/updating to ensure contemporary views on important components of clinical governance are included.

1. Review the white and grey literature 2010-2016 on healthcare clinical governance frameworks and systems from UK, US, Canada, NZ and Australia for key components of clinical governance in hospitals, with a focus on the board and executive roles.

The literature review will primarily comprise journal articles about important aspects of clinical governance for hospital boards; and also existing clinical governance frameworks and hospital board guidance documents from Departments of Health and safety and quality organisations. For example: the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare Board guide to the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, and Version 2 of National Safety and Quality Standard 1 should be the cornerstone documents for this review: www.safetyandquality.gov.au

2. List the key components of effective clinical governance systems and frameworks, derived from the literature review, including:
clinical governance definitions,
board and executive team roles and relationships
leadership styles
organisational culture issues
the key processes and tools that make up an effective clinical governance system.

3. Prepare a table comparing the key components list from the literature and the key components of the attached existing clinical governance framework (Victorian clinical governance framework – attached).

4. Identify one case study of a successful clinical governance implementation in a hospital

5. Identify any flags that indicate clinical governance is not well implemented in a hospital

6. Highlight the clinical governance components from the literature that are missing from the existing framework