The implementation of Phase Three across the next 12 months will take shape in a number of ways – all of which continue to focus on IF’s core objective of developing and delivering quality improvement programs that support the delivery of measureable, systematic and sustainable improvements to primary healthcare systems and patient care.

IF is currently working with the Department of Health and Ageing to finalise an implementation plan for Phase Three, and expects to provide further information in the near future, including specific information about the various initiatives through recruitment announcements.

For more information or to register your interest in the APCC Program please contact IF direct on 1800 771 522 or email apcc@improve.org.au

• Over 4,000 additional patients recorded on diabetes registers across the wave
• 7% improvement in the number of patients on the diabetes register recorded with an HbA1c ≤ 7 in the last 12 months
• 12% improvement in the number of patients on the diabetes register with a cholesterol measure recorded in the last 12 months.

The third learning workshop was delivered via a virtual medium (using GoToWebinar® software) in the week commencing 25 July 2011. This workshop used a panel format consisting of a clinician, practice manager and receptionist from Cleveland Medical Practice, Queensland, who shared their perspectives on enabling self management support for patients with diabetes.

The panel discussed how Cleveland Medical Practice have incorporated self management support into their daily systems, and how their roles collectively support this system. If you’d like to hear the workshop and pick up some valuable tips about self management support, the audio files can be downloaded from the links below.

http://dc376.4shared.com/download/NwXDy6vB/Improvement_Foundation_-_27071.mp3 (6.72 mb)

http://dc376.4shared.com/download/O5sdUs_G/Improvement_Foundation_-_27071.mp3 (7.01 mb)

GP Partners Adelaide is one Division that has embraced the new framework whole-heartedly. Health services participating in the wave get together for virtual workshops and dinners where they share templates, letters and resources. The health services also phone each other directly to ask for advice and seek knowledge from their trusted peers.

GP Partners Adelaide have also established mentoring sessions or ‘health service to health service’ learning sessions for their APCC participants. Time is allocated for staff to visit each other's health services for a 'show and tell' session focused on learning how their peers operate on a daily basis. This has been invaluable in assisting staff to learn how different sized services function, and to gather ideas for improvement that can be used at their own health service.

If you are involved in the Diabetes Prevention and Management wave and would like to share your experiences, please contact newsletter@improve.org.au

Notable improvements across the 60 participating health services (mainstream and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services) from baseline to month 10 include:

• An overall improvement from 8% to 12% for ‘the percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples that have undergone a health assessment in the last 12 months’. In particular, the participating Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services recorded an 8% improvement in this measure, which is a significant increase given the size of the patient population for some health services.
• An overall improvement in the 'smoking status assessed' measure for patients with diabetes. By month 10, 43% of patients with diabetes had a smoking assessment recorded.
• A 33% improvement on baseline for the 'smoking status not recorded' measure. This is an important first step to appropriately targeting interventions at the health service level.
• A 30% improvement on baseline for patients with diabetes that are recorded as having an Influenza immunisation.
• Health services also recorded an improvement from 27% to 34% in the measure 'the percentage of patients on the diabetes register with a blood pressure recorded within the previous 12 months and whose last recorded blood pressure was less than or equal to 130/80'.

The Improvement Foundation team is pleased to see the improvements made by health services participating in the Closing the Gap local waves, and look forward to seeing the ongoing results of the work these health services undertake in their journey to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The focus of the day was ‘Approaching Horizon – eHealth in the Immediate Future’. Along with three other speakers in the ‘Engagement’ stream of the topic, Colin discussed why the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives Program is so successful. Some key points from this presentation included:

• Having sound program/project structure
• The use of measurement and feedback
• An approach that allows for local innovation
• Peer led change, which includes finding and developing champions
• Health service leaders and change agents
• The importance of protected time
• Local support using skilled people.

This year’s eHealth conference was focused on the changes that will occur due to the introduction of electronic health records.

The 2011 AGPN eHealth conference was held immediately prior to the Health Informatics Conference, at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 August.

Health Informatics Conference (HIC)
IF hosted a stand at the 2011 HIC, held in Brisbane on 3 - 5 August. The primary aims were to demonstrate to attendees the work that has been done in the areas of primary healthcare improvement and to demonstrate the Improvement Foundation web portal. IF exhibited alongside the Pen Computer Systems(Pen CS) / Royal Australian College of General Practice (RACGP) Oxygen stand to demonstrate the synergies between the two organisations; where PenCS supplies the Clinical Audit Tool (CAT) that extracts and uploads data from clinical systems to the IF web portal.

The new version will allow Communicare users access to all features in CAT, including allowing health services using Communicare to extract and upload a range of indicators to the IF web portal (including the APCC measures, Healthy For Life essential indicators and Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council quality indicators). To read more about accessing CAT with Communicare, please click here.

The name was chosen to reflect the winning artwork which shows many different streams running into the OATSIH Community Health Reporting Environment (OCHRE). Created by Nicole Newley of Brisbane, QLD, the winning original artwork (below) will form the basis of the branding for OCHREStreams.

Nicole describes the artwork as “symbolising the new Web Based Reporting Tool and the relationship it has to health services and health workers. The yellow centre of the circle represents OATSIH. The circles surrounding this represent the Web Based Reporting Tool and the data it holds.

The groups of lines radiating out from the circles are the channels which support the flow of information to and from services in each of the states and territories. The yellow lines represent regional health services with the rose lines branching off to represent rural services, and the red dots representing remote services. The small yellow dots are all the pieces of data collected from the health workers and flowing into the Web Based Reporting Tool.”

- Congratulations Nicole!

This program, involving 20 general practices across five metropolitan Divisions in South Australia, is funded by SA Health and supports the recruitment and up-skilling of nurses working in general practice. IF has developed a custom web portal site where participants of the GPPPNI can submit their Model for Improvement, Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles and view results of any measures they've previously submitted.

The first Collaborative learning workshop will be held in Adelaide on 27 September 2011. The GPPPNI learning workshops are modeled on the APCC Program methodology and the topic focus of this Initiative will be on Care Co-ordination for people at risk of hospitalisation.

For more information about this program or to discuss how IF can support your Division or Medicare Local to deliver a Collaborative program, please contact Amanda Taylor on (08) 8422 7422 or enquiries@improve.org.au.

IF would also like to welcome two new staff members to the Information Communication & Technology team. Sam Livingston and David Taylor both joined the team in July and are responsible for providing telephone support to web portal users, as well as internal technology and infrastructure expertise.

For the APCC Program, the APCC website now has a dedicated 'feedback' form, which can be completed online. If you'd like to provide IF with any feedback about the APCC website, please use the online form. You can access it here.

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