Digital information can transform the quality and sustainability of health and care. Used effectively, it can help save lives, improve health and wellbeing and support a sustainable health system that delivers safe, high quality and effective health services for all Australians.
As you may know, SWSPHN plays an important role in supporting quality improvement (QI) in general practices across our region with strategies to embed QI systems, improve data quality, analyse the practice’s data and identify areas for improvement, assist with goal setting and improvement activities, provide progress reports and feedback.
This month we take a closer look at our Quality Improvment in Primary Care program
- How does the program work?
- What are the benefits of participation?
- Who is eligible to participate?
- What do participants have to say about the program?
- How do I learn more?
SWSPHN’s Quality Improvement in Primary Care (QIPC) program has continued to grow since it began more than three years ago with 245 practices from the 425 practices in South Western Sydney participating in the program.
The three aims of the QIPC program are: improving data quality; utilising practice data to improve patient care; and identifying potential business revenue for the practice.
A key component of the program is the collection of a practice’s deidentified dataset which is then used to create both a benchmark report and clinical area of focus reports for our practices. To find out more about data security
We currently have the following clinical area of focus reports, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, COPD, asthma, depression, anxiety, bipolar and schizophrenia.
The QIPC program has three tiers that indicate the practice’s level of engagement in quality improvement – as engagement increases, practices move into higher tiers and receive different reports.
From the 245 QIPC participating practices – nine practices are participating in Tier 1 (data sharing only), 177 in Tier 2 (data quality) and 59 in Tier 3 (clinical focus).
QIPC reports are created monthly and delivered quarterly to all participating practices. The practice uses this report to identify an area they would like to work on and SWSPHN records this on a model for improvement (MFI) template. This MFI is then reviewed the following visit to track the practice’s progress and to re-identify a new focus area to target for the following quarter.
What are the benefits of participation?
Benefits include:
- 40 Category 1 RACGP and ACRRM points and for general practitioners participating in Tier 3
- Enhance data management to meet accreditation standards
- Improve patient care while identifying potential business revenue
- Establish sustainable systems and processes for the practice
- Links to referral pathways
Who is eligible to participate?
All practices in South Western Sydney are eligible to participate if they are a computerised practice and sign SWSPHN’s Data Sharing and License Agreement. To find out more about these requirements, contact your Practice Support Officer on 4632 3000.
What do participants have to say about the program?
Dr Indran Rajendra, Bundanoon: “The focus of the QIPC program is data cleansing, which I am a big advocate for. I believe once in the right frame of mind, improving database quality and completeness easily integrates into the daily use of your medical software. Once improved, the database becomes a jewel in your crown resulting in better health and financial outcomes for the practice. As this program has strong focus towards attaining clean data I can only highly recommend all practices, if eligible, to also participate.”
Dr Dilruni Pallewatta, Liverpool: “The QI program from PHN has immensely helped me to improve my data quality and patient management especially in regard to diabetes. I myself have learned a lot and greatly advise other practices to join this program.”
To find out more about the QIPC program visit our webpage or contact your PSO on 4632 3000.