South Western Sydney PHN’s Quality Improvement in Primary Care (QIPC) program has grown and supported general practices since October 2017.
QIPC – a stepped approach for practices to improve quality of patient care
QIPC is a stepped approach to improving the quality of patient care in general practice. This is achieved through a strong focus on software and reporting, and supporting GPs, nurses and administration staff to meet RACGP standards for chronic disease prevention and management.
Since 2017 participation in the SWSPHN QIPC program has grown from 140 general practices to 266 general practices within a three-tier system.
The QIPC program’s three-tier system is based on a practice’s level of engagement and participation in the QIPC program:
In 2023 SWSPHN is expanding our Health Systems Improvement (HSI) team to enable us to support more Tier 3 practices as they move up from Tier 2, and to develop more QIPC resources.
POLAR QIPC Report for chronic disease management
Prior to 2021, SWSPHN supplied each general practice with a paper-based QIPC report with benchmark data updates. Each participating practice can now access their QI data online via several POLAR reports. In the past 18 months the HSI team has worked closely with Outcome Health (POLAR’s company) to produce several new clinical modules in the POLAR QIPC report for chronic disease prevention and management:
Additional clinical modules in the POLAR QIPC report are currently being developed.
Preparation of QIPC Resources
The HSI team is continuing to update existing resources as well as preparing new resources to assist practices in quality improvement. These include updating and building upon our library of POLAR Walkthroughs (how-to guides) to enable independent use of POLAR. These and other resources can be found on the QIPC POLAR Resources webpage.
Benefits of participation in QIPC Program
In addition to improvement in clinic data, income and patient health outcomes, other benefits of participating in the SWSPHN QIPC program include:
Practice Incentive Payment Quality Improvement (PIP QI)
Completion of one Model for Improvement (MFI) per quarter helps meet PIP QI requirements for continuous quality improvement.
GP CPD hours
There have been significant changes to RACGP GP CPD requirements for the 2023 to 2025 Triennium. General Practitioners must undertake 50 hours of CPD each year of the Triennium, divided into three categories. We are pleased to report the SWSPHN QIPC program has been approved to offer 10 CPD hours for one of the years in the Triennium to GPs who register and meet eligibility criteria. HSI officers will soon invite Tier 3 GPs to register.
Nurse CPD hours
Nurses working in Tier 2 and Tier 3 practices who actively participate in the QIPC program, may be eligible for two CPD hours per calendar year. Information is available from your PSO/HSI officer.
Accreditation requirements
Involvement in the QIPC program can help your practice to meet or exceed accreditation standards for quality improvement as listed in the RACGP 5th Edition Standards.
Spotlight on two successful SWSPHN QIPC practices
What is a ‘successful’ QIPC practice? Success can be measured in various ways such as improved patient data or business revenue, but it is not just about numbers and finance. Success may be seen in better patient health outcomes, minimising risk of hospitalisation, or improving teamwork and staff morale. Below are two practices who share how being part of the SWSPHN QIPC program has helped their practice:
Fairfield West Medical Centre
Fairfield West Medical Centre is a multicultural and multilingual general practice located within the heart of the Fairfield Local Government Area. It is one of our Tier 3 practices and has participated in the SWSPHN QIPC program since 2019.
Practice nurse Stephanie is the QI champion and collaborates with the practice manager and GPs to work on their chosen focus areas each quarter. She shared how they are happy being part of the QIPC program and that focussing on specific areas to improve (both benchmark data and clinical) helps make these areas part of their ‘business as usual’ activities as they care for their patients. Stephanie says they feel well supported by SWSPHN staff who are helpful and always quick to respond.
The practice has seen improvements in the quality of their patient data and quality of care for their patients. Stephanie says she finds ‘POLAR easy to use and is helpful for accessing patient lists, such as when the doctor asks me to recall patients eligible for a Shingles vaccination.’ Business revenue is also improving as POLAR can easily provide a list of patients to recall who are potentially eligible for various MBS items such as Care Plans and Health Assessments.
Minto Mediclinic
Minto Mediclinic is one of the SWSPHN Tier 2 practices and has been participating in the QIPC program for the past four years. Mediclinic is a small GP clinic located within a pharmacy in the Campbelltown LGA. Manager and QI Champion Helen shared how being part of the QIPC program and using POLAR has helped them to regularly improve the data quality of their patient records by using the highlighted indicators (‘traffic lights’) in the QIPC report.
When preparing for and going through accreditation, Helen said using POLAR made it easy to work out which benchmark data areas to focus on to benefit their patients. By completing the Model for Improvement (MFIs) each quarter, the clinic was able to easily show evidence of their participation in QI activities. Accreditation assessors expressed how impressed they were with Mediclinic’s ongoing improvements.
If you would like more information on participating in QIPC, please contact your assigned Practice Support Officer or Health Systems Improvement Officer.