Health care variation: the next challenge for clinical colleges

Unwarranted variation in health care requires action from all players in health — including clinical colleges

Marked variations in the use of 18 health care services, such as hospitalisations for chronic diseases and surgical procedures, were reported in the Second Australian atlas of healthcare variation (the second Atlas), recently published by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission).1 The amount of variation seen is unlikely to be explained by differences in patient needs, and so indicates opportunities for delivering more effective patient care and getting better outcomes for individuals and for the community.2