Table 5 Themes and sub-themes representing factors associated with high performing organisations

1) Positive organisational culture

1a) Respect and trust between colleagues at all levels in clinical and non-clinical services [32, 31, 10, 33]

1b) Relentless quest and unwavering focus for excellence [34–37]

1c) Recognition and compensation for good work [38, 34, 40, 37]

1d) Safe, non-threatening environment [41, 36]

1e) Promotes values for improvement [42, 41]

2) Receptive and responsive senior management

2a) Support [31, 10, 41, 34]

2b) Involvement [33, 34, 31]

2c) Access and visibility [42, 41]

2d) Commitment [35, 38, 42]

3) Effective performance monitoring

3a) Accurate measurement and goal setting [10, 34, 38, 43]

3b) Sophisticated data systems [37, 44, 45, 35, 43]

3c) Using data for continuous feedback and improvement [37, 10, 32, 47, 42, 40, 38, 33, 48]

3d) Accountability [44, 42, 34, 38]

4) Building and maintaining a proficient workforce

4a) Acquiring and developing talent [44, 31, 45, 42, 41, 40, 35]

4b) Aligning staff with the organisational vision [44, 31, 34, 38]

4c) Effective dissemination of policy and processes [32, 33, 43, 48]

4d) Mandatory and specialised training [32, 42, 40, 43, 33]

5) Effective leaders across the organisation

5a) Commitment and responsibility [10, 35, 38, 33]

5b) Support staff to enhance performance [10, 33, 48]

5c) Mutual respect [10, 33]

6) Expertise-driven practice

6a) Frontline autonomy and flexibility based on experience and expertise [10, 37, 34, 43]

6b) Trust and empowerment for innovation and creativity [42, 35, 34, 38]

7) Interdisciplinary teamwork

7a) Effective multi-disciplinary and multi-level collaboration and communication [10, 32, 31, 34, 41, 36, 40, 38, 33, 48]

7b) Collaboration with external health service providers [32, 47, 31]

7c) Coordinated patient focused care [10, 40, 48, 42, 38, 32, 45]