Partnering with Consumers

The purpose of CHAG is to ensure that consumer participation is an integral component of governance, service planning, service delivery, evaluation, quality improvement and person-centred care.

CHAG provides a forum for local community members to engage in a range of health service activities to improve health care quality and safety. CHAG members advise Alpine Health on issues that are inclusive of disadvantage, age, disability, and cultural, religious, linguistic, gender and First Nations diversity.

Find out more about CHAG and frequently asked questions

The Consumer Register was created in 2022 to provide retiring CHAG members and new community members an opportunity to share their consumer expertise on specialist or short term activities. These members support and complement the work of CHAG.

The Consumer Register includes three roles:

1. Consumer or Community Members on Committees – These members protect the interests of consumers, ensure that the committee addresses consumer concerns, and enhance transparency and accountability.
2. Community Feedback Ambassadors – These individuals are trained to support the community to provide feedback on their experience of Alpine Health programs and services, or to gather information from the community about emerging health needs or issues.
3. Consumer Information Advisors – These individuals use their knowledge and expertise to ensure that consumers are able to find, understand, and apply the information they need to fully participate in decisions about their health and wellbeing.

Every five years Alpine Health develops a new Service Plan to detail our strategic direction and prioritise how to best meet the needs of the community. This includes extensive consultation with the community, service partners, staff and other key stakeholders.

The Service Plan then guides the development of the annual Corporate Plan, which outlines Alpine Health’s corporate priorities for the next 12 months. A wide range of stakeholders are invited to attend the Corporate Planning Day.

Alpine Health encourages consumers to provide feedback about their experience of care as it helps to inform and guide quality improvement activities. The primary mechanism for collecting consumer feedback is Care Opinion, an independent feedback platform that facilitates conversations between consumers and health services about experiences of care. Consumers can submit their feedback at any time via a phone call, a hard copy form or their website. Care Opinion staff work with patients, clients, residents and their loved ones to ensure feedback is confidential and constructive.

Consumer experience data is also gathered through a number of formal surveys with hospital patients, community clients and aged care residents. These are largely through external bodies and include the Victoria Healthcare Experience Survey, the Primary Health Network client surveys, Community Home Support Package client satisfaction surveys and the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Quality Indicator Program surveys.

Alpine Health’s Consumer Experience Committee analyses all feedback and prepares a quarterly Consumer Experience Report.

View the Consumer Experience Report on the Alpine Health website.

Consumer Stories are an important way for Alpine Health to hear about the lived experiences of community members. They provide rich information about topics such as communication, the coordination of care and personal factors that shape health outcomes.

Consumer Stories also highlight key aspects of person-centred care and guide quality improvement activities.

Consumer Stories from community members, home support clients, hospital patients, aged care residents and carers are shared on the Alpine Health website

View Consumer Stories 

In our hospital, residential aged care and community settings, processes and systems are designed to support person-centred care and enable shared decision-making with all patients, residents and clients.