Alstonville Clinic, a busy medical practice, had only a few managers trained in quality improvement, but when they observed the benefits it provided to the practice and patients, they resolved to implement it into the everyday working habits of all staff.

Challenge

Finding the time to dedicate to the implementation of quality improvement, especially using an online data driven approach and with information technology not always readily available, remained a challenge.

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Having already achieved outstanding results in improving patient outcomes through embedding continuous quality improvement, Langpark Medical Centre in Melbourne knew to maintain retention of high quality staff it was time to focus on improving staff morale and internal communication.

With a multi-disciplinary team consisting of nine GP’s, five practice nurses and administrative staff, the team engaged the services of the Improvement Foundation’s personalised quality improvement coaching service, qiCoach, designed to accelerate growth and improve business and patient outcomes. The qiCoach conducted a diagnostic assessment of their organisational efficiency, clinical activity and financial performance. Zeroing in on improving staff morale and retention, the practice team and the qiCoach worked to improve staff performance reviews. Varied methods had been trialled ranging from documented performance appraisal templates, balanced score cards to no reviews, however each method came with data inconsistencies and shortcomings. (more…)

An integrated approach to primary healthcare by the practice demonstrates respect for patient autonomy and their participation in healing. The focus is on prevention and health promotion, allowing patients to exercise choice and ownership over their treatment. With a large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community in the area, they expanded their services to include a dedicated indigenous healthcare worker to achieve their aim of providing holistic and culturally aware care to all patients.

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Platinum Medical Centre (MC), while operating a successful holistic healthcare service, recognised that by introducing standard systems they could improve their services even more. Diabetes is a strong focus for the clinic and through the APCC Program the team at Platinum MC were able to successfully establish a strong diabetes care plan, through data cleansing and building their registers as well as employing a chronic disease specialist nurse.

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The practice nurse at Adelaide City General Practice (GP) took on the responsibility of creating and running a flu vaccination clinic. The aim was to free up doctor appointments and to proactively vaccinate patients early in the season. By using a flu vaccination template, generously supplied by Regency Medical Centre, Adelaide City GP were able to change the process of how they vaccinated their patients against the flu, which led to an increase in productivity and income, and an expansion of the practice.

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After looking at measures recorded on their practice database, Coliban Medical Centre (MC) noticed a high proportion of obese and overweight patients. They decided to proactively tackle this issue by introducing a healthy lifestyle clinic. The aim of the clinic was to assist patients to address the reasons for their weight gain and assist them to make positive lifestyle changes, in order to decrease their risk of developing a chronic disease.

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Prospect Medical Centre (MC) developed a care program for patients with diabetes, which required correct data input, registers and more specific programming. The practice extended its allied health and nursing services – which now includes a dietician, diabetic educator, podiatrist, mental health nurse, exercise physiologist, psychologist, and their chronic disease nurse manager and diabetic nurse coordinator – to provide both preventative and health management measures for patients with diabetes. (more…)

A change in ownership from a privately owned solo GP practice to public ownership meant Cleve Medical Practice had to rebuild from the ground up. They joined the APCC Program with an aim to improve service delivery, communication and integration with other community health services. Through their involvement in the Program, and with assistance from Country Health SA, the practice was able to grow into a successful business with a focus on diabetes care and management.

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Hope Island Medical Centre has improved preventative care and planned chronic care of their patients by adopting more systematic and efficient work processes. The practice nurses played a key role in instigating the focus on preventative care, and were able to devote their time into actively seeking out those patients who were at a high risk of developing a chronic disease, and encouraging them to pro actively address risk factors.

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Joining the APCC Program helped the practice team at Maddington Village General Practice develop a stronger team approach by holding regular team meetings and improving communication. The practice team has successfully implemented a number of changes that benefit both the patients and staff.  By ‘getting to know’ their patients, the staff are able to provide a more efficient and proactive service to their community.

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Seville Drive Medical Centre has improved its processes and systems to ensure all patient data and information is correctly recorded in the clinical software, which allows for more proactive care of patients with chronic diseases. The practice now prides itself on its diabetes care, provided by a whole-of-team approach.

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After attending the first learning workshop of the APCC Program, representatives from Daisy Hill Medical Surgery were enthusiastic about employing a practice nurse. By embracing this new role at the practice, the entire team were able to provide better care to their patients, particularly in improving access and providing a proactive and patient-centred approach to chronic disease care.

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Broughton Clinic joined the APCC Program to learn how to use their patient population health data more efficiently. Through regular data cleansing and analysis, they were able to more accurately define their patient population and measure health outcomes. The team is now more focused on making improvements and staff challenge themselves to find better ways of improving patient engagement, and provide systematic and proactive care.

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To provide proactive care to their patients with a chronic disease, the team at Busby Medical Centre adopted a ‘cycle of care’ plan. The care plan assists patients in managing their own condition as well as planning their care thoroughly with the practice team, utilising a whole-of-team approach. Access was also improved dramatically by modifying their existing duty doctor initiative, which lightened the workload for the GPs and provided greater capacity for ‘on the day’ appointments.

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Rural Health West encourages quality improvement techniques in Western Australia’s rural and remote communities using the Improvement Foundation training webinars.

The Challenge – how to deliver quality improvement training to rural healthcare professionals
The practices that Rural Health West provides support to include some of Australia’s most remote medical practices.

Providing equal access to training programs for health practices that are located over 1000 kilometres from the nearest regional centre can be challenging.

Additionally it is not always logistically possible for health practice staff to take time out of busy schedules to travel to regional centres to attend training.

Rural Health West required a training solution that would provide cost effective and equitable training for rural and remote healthcare workers and practice staff.

Solution – Quality Improvement Webinar Training – interactive and cost effective

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Dr John Troy Medical Centre recruited a respiratory technician and implemented a lung function clinic, in order to provide more proactive care to patients with chronic respiratory diseases. The health service further developed their recall systems and use GP Management Plans in order to provide better healthcare for people with chronic disease, in their community.

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Derwent Valley Medical Centre joined the APCC Program to learn about implementing new systems that would help improve patient access to care. they successfully tested and implemented ideas they learnt through attending APCC workshops. The team  now has a greater focus on shared learning, improving team skills and strengthening partnerships with other health services within their division.

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East Geelong Medical Centre analysed their smoking and allergy status records and could see they needed improving. they decided that to improve the accuracy of these records, and to meet the QiP/AgPAl accreditation standards, they would need to develop a patient information form that included not only general contact and patients details, but smoking and allergy status.
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