Welcome

Hello and Welcome to the November 2020 edition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Data Portal (Portal) e-newsletter.

Content

Item 1: nKPI Reporting: The nKPI reporting period is due to commence 1 January 2021 and closes 15 February 2021.

Item 2: Qlik Interactive Reports: Information on additional features of the Qlik interactive reports.

Item 3: nKPI Modifications for January 2021 reporting: Information about modifications to some of the existing nKPIs.

Item 4: Change to Portal User Administrator role: User Administrators are now able to assign the Interactive Viewer Report role, as well as the new Published Report Viewer role.

Item 5: OSR Service Level Reports: User Administrators will receive a secure email containing their service's OSR Service Level Report.

Item 6: OSR and nKPI for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Data Framework: A consultation period on the draft framework will be open soon.

Item 7: Portal User Support: An overview of the User Support resources that have been created, and Portal Helpdesk and Support team contact information.

Item 1: nKPI Reporting

A big thank you to those services who submitted their nKPI, OSR and HCP reports last reporting round (July-August 2020). Over 90% of reports were submitted by 250 organisations. This was despite the reporting round being non-mandatory.

In acknowledgement of the additional pressures for health services, due to COVID-19, the Department of Health (the Department) waived the mandatory condition in the Indigenous Australian’s Health Programme grant funding agreement for last reporting round (July-August 2020) as well as for the upcoming nKPI reporting round (opening 1 January 2021 and closing 15 February 2021).

This great achievement demonstrates the high level of engagement with data by the Indigenous health sector and a wide-acceptance of the Portal as the data reporting platform. Health services played a key role in co-designing the Portal, and now have their data readily accessible to inform service delivery and continuous quality improvement, to monitor and benchmark progress and achieve clinical milestones.

The nKPI, OSR or HCP data submitted in July 2020 is also providing a picture of the impacts of COVID-19 on services and service delivery for Indigenous health services and the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Therefore, there is immense value in submitting your nKPI report in January-February 2021 for your health service and the broader new Closing the Gap agreement, and the Department would like to strongly encourage you to do so.

To assist with reporting there is a What's New/What's different document available here, or you may wish to contact indigenousreporting@health.gov.au and request a Webex training session.

Item 2: Qlik Interactive Reports

Qlik Interactive Reports provide a way for health services to obtain a graphical view of their aggregated nKPI data, back to December 2014. It offers a platform for services to analyse their data trends and compare their latest results to those of other health services for continuous quality improvement purposes.

The Qlik Interactive Reports now have a downloadable PowerPoint presentation containing all of the graphs from the three summary reports in your Qlik reports. The presentation, which you can customise to suit your needs, will be available after each nKPI collection once the AIHW has processed everyone’s data submissions.

This new feature will make it easier for Health Services to share nKPI results and comparisons with clinical teams, and may be useful to brief senior management and Boards. The downloadable PowerPoint summary replaces the PowerPoint report provided, in the past, by the AIHW.

If you would like assistance and/or training to navigate your Health Service's Interactive Reports, please contact the Portal Support team (see Item 6 for details). Stuart Dunn and Eileen Aguirre from the Portal Support team can assist in navigating the Interactive Reports in Qlik and help you get the most out of your Health Service's data.

You can also access the QLIK Interactive Reports User Guide at any time.

If you, or anyone in your health service needs to access the Interactive Reports or the downloadable PowerPoint summary report in Qlik, your service's Portal User Administrator is now able to assign these roles:

Interactive Report Viewer role, and
Published Report Viewer role to access the downloadable PowerPoint file.

Item 3: nKPI Modifications for January 2021 reporting

Just a reminder:

The first group of minor nKPI updates, involving indicators 3, 7, 8, 14 and 22, will be in place in clinical system reports and in the Portal in time for the December 2020 nKPI collection. Modifications include:

PI03 – Addition of the 5 to 14 years age group so as to include all age groups. Inclusion of MBS 715 and MBS 228 (VR and non VR health checks) as 'in person' health checks and addition of telehealth MBS item numbers as a separate disaggregation, 'telehealth' count. The Indicator has been renamed to 'Health assessments'.

PI07 – As per PI03, inclusion of VR and non VR GP management plans as 'in person' management plan and a separate disaggregation for telehealth items. The indicator has been renamed to 'Chronic Disease Management Plan'.

PI08 – The recommendation to remove this nKPI involves a level of coverage that might need to go beyond the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Advisory Group (HS DAG) for decision. Further information will be provided in the newsletter when available. The indicator will not be visible in the next data collection.

PI14 – Addition of all ages from six months onwards as per current clinical guidelines on influenza vaccination. The indicator has been renamed to ''Immunised against influenza 6+ months'.

PI22 - Rename indicator to 'Cervical Screening'. Updated to align with cervical screening guidelines and removal of reference to 'pap test'. Age range updated to 25 to 74 years.

nKPI Targets - A new nKPI targets tab in the Portal will replace the targets question previously asked in the Activity Work Plan. The self determined targets as nominated by you/your service will appear in your Qlik reports, allowing you to track progress over time. This will minimise duplication and help to reduce services' reporting burden.

A document outlining What's New/What's Different, for the next reporting round, can be found here.

For your information, the updated nKPI specifications/definitions can be found here.

Item 4: Change to Portal User Administrator role

The Portal User Administrator role will now be able to assign the following roles:

Interactive Viewer Report, and
Published Report Viewer.

The Interactive Viewer Report role allows you to access your service's nKPI data through the Qlik Interactive Reports. This role was previously assigned by the Portal Support Team, but now is able to be assigned by your User Administrator.

The Published Report Viewer role is new and allows you to download the new PowerPoint presentation, from the Qlik Interactive Reports, containing all of the graphs from the three summary reports of your nKPI data. This replaces the PowerPoint report provided, in the past, by the AIHW. It will be available following AIHW's processing of your nKPI data. This capability is now available for you.

Item 5: OSR Service Level Reports

As mentioned above, the OSR Service Level Reports will be, for the last time, provided by the AIHW, via secure email, to all Portal User Administrators. If you have not received yours already, please send an email to osrhelpdesk@aihw.gov.au

Item 6: OSR and nKPI for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Data Framework

The draft OSR and nKPI for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Data Framework (the Framework) sets out the roles and responsibilities of participants in the collection, use, access, privacy and security of the nKPI and OSR data.

Consultations have already taken place with the AIHW, NACCHO, the Department’s legal team, internal data specialists and the membership of the Health Services Data Advisory Group (HS DAG).

This document is likely to be of interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, researchers and government stakeholders. It has been reviewed to ensure it is in accord with the Priority Reform 4 Shared Access to Data and Information of the new Closing the Gap Agreement.

The Framework will be available for consultation for a six week period, and will give stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the draft in preparation for publication. Further details will be provided, when the dates for consultation are known, including a link to enable your participation and feedback.

Item 7: User Support

There is a suite of user support resources available to assist in using the Portal and getting the most out of the QLIK Interactive Reports. User support resources include:

Quick Reference Guides (step-by-step guides)
User Guides (more technical information)
Screencasts (interactive e-learning for new staff to learn the basics of the Portal)
Webinar Videos (visual step-by-step guides narrated by Stuart Dunn)

To access these resources, simply click on the User Help link on the Portal landing page.

Portal Support Team

You can contact the Portal Support team (Stuart or Eileen), via the Helpdesk, on 1800 316 387 between 8.30am and 5.00pm AEST Monday to Friday (excluding Australian Capital Territory and national public holidays).

Portal Helpdesk

The Portal Helpdesk is the first point of contact for Portal registration and set up, and more complex queries relating to use of the Portal can be escalated to the Portal Support team for action as required.

Indigenous Health Data Reporting Contacts

For a full list of data reporting contacts including the AIHW, go to the Portal Contact Details in the Portal webpage or the Contact Us page in the Portal.