16 December 2024

After dedicating his life to the sustainability of rural health, particularly with his introduction of clinical risk and quality improvement programs, Professor Alan Wolff OAM retired in 2020 due to illness and passed away on August 10, 2021.

In the early 1980s a young Dr Wolff was working in medical administration at Royal Melbourne Hospital when his wife Dr Yvonne Cymbalist wanted to learn more about obstetrics and came to Horsham to work under the long-serving Dr Eric Miller.

Not wanting to be separated from Yvonne, Dr Wolff convinced his boss to allow him six months of working in Horsham and the pair soon fell on love with the town and its community. When a fulltime position became available Dr Wolff applied and he started officially in January 1984.

Professor Wolff held the position of Director of Medical Services at Wimmera Health Care Group for 36 years, but his own waning health inevitably compelled him to step down.

Prof Wolff’s expertise in medical experience and a strong research interest in clinical risk management and quality improvement methods had supported Wimmera Health Care Group to improve and deliver high quality care. He spent over 20 years developing and refining an integrated and sustainable quality improvement and risk management program for Wimmera Health Care Group.

The model was implemented extensively in Victorian, national and international hospitals. It was supported by a relevant evidence and theory-based book, journal articles, lecturing and numerous presentations aimed at sharing his expansive knowledge for the enhancement of patient care.

Prof Wolff was very proud of the adverse event screening program he developed at Wimmera Health Care Group in June 1989, which led to the establishment of the second clinical risk management unit in an Australian hospital.

The Limited Adverse Occurrence Screening model was adapted from the Medical Management Analysis Program in America - but with an emphasis on simplicity of screening criteria, low cost, and the involvement of all medical staff.

There are now 20 years of comprehensive data on the implementation of the program available which demonstrates a continuous and sustained reduction in adverse events occurring at our health care group.

The LAOS program was extended to 10 small hospitals in the Wimmera by The Centre for Rural Health at Monash University and the West Vic. Division of General Practice in a program funded by the Department of Human Services. Subsequently, it was rolled out across 80 small hospitals in Victoria, where it provided the main clinical quality and safety program in many of these hospitals for over 10 years.

Prof Wolff was a key driver in the establishment of the Clinical Pathway Program at Wimmera Health Care Group. This program incorporated daily checklists and reminders into the inpatient medical records to improve compliance with best clinical practice.

Today, 60 clinical pathways have been developed at Wimmera Health Care Group, for use when providing care to patients during acute and elective admissions in medicine, general and specialist surgery, obstetrics and paediatrics. Clinical Pathways have led to significant improvements in clinical care, patient management, length of stay and multidisciplinary involvement.

In 2009, Prof Wolff and WHCG director Clinical Improvement, Risk and Innovation Sally Taylor wrote “Enhancing Patient Care: a practical guide to improving quality and safety in hospitals". The book provides a comprehensive review of the quality and safety literature distilling the practical aspects of designing, implementing and maintaining an effective quality and safety program in a hospital and describes in detail, the Wimmera quality and safety programs.

Prof Wolff was the program manager for the medical records review component of the Integrated Quality Management Model program supported by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services as part of the National Hospital Outcomes Program.

For eight years, he was the Assistant Director of the CHECK program, a monthly postgraduate education and quality assurance publication distributed to 12,000 general practitioner subscribers in Australia.

For the past decade, he was a member of the Victorian Quality Council and of the Department of Human Services' Clinical Risk Management Reference Group. He was also chairperson for four of his nine years with the Sentinel Event Review Sub Committee.

Today, Prof Wolff's legacy lives through the Alan Wolff Medical Centre that was renamed in his honour in 2021.

Horsham Dr Alan Wolff