Long-Term Conditions Collaborative
IF supported the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) in New Zealand with the implementation of the Equipped Primary Care Collaborative which focused on long term conditions.The objective of the Collaborative was to encourage and support health service teams to make systematic and sustainable improvements in the care they provide to people living with long term conditions, by applying quality improvement methods and skills.
The topics included system re-design, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and self-management support.
15 general practices were involved, supported by five Primary Healthcare Organisations (PHOs*) who commenced the program in March 2009 and continued to submit monthly data until March 2010.
This collaborative was funded through the Ministry of Health, from 1 March 2009 to 30 June 2010.
For more information about the Long-Term Conditions Collaborative visit www.adhb.govt.nz.
*PHOs are similar to Australian Divisions of General Practice.
Last Updated 29 August 2011
What is the Model for Improvement?
The Model for Improvement provides a framework for developing, testing and implementing changes. It helps to break down a change effort into small, manageable chunks which are then tested to ensure that things are improving and that no effort is wasted. It is always worth remembering that while every improvement is certainly a change, every change is not an improvement.
The Model for Improvement consists of two equal parts; the first part, the “thinking part”, consists of three fundamental questions to guide improvement work:
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- How will we know that a change is an improvement?
- What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?
For more information about the Model for Improvement visit: http://apcc.org.au/about_the_APCC/the_model_for_improvement/
What is the Collaborative Methodology?
Adapted from the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology, in the Australian context, the Collaborative methodology is used as a framework for the APCC Program. This methodology has been applied to a wide range of management challenges. Originally applied to healthcare systems in the USA, it has since been adopted in other countries, including the UK, Scotland, Canada and New Zealand.
The Collaborative methodology is proven to be highly effective in achieving large scale systems change and demonstrating measurable outcomes. It provides a generic quality improvement model that can be applied to achieve incremental, rapid and locally relevant improvements across a broad range of clinical and practice business issues.