> About us > Annual Report 2008 > Manage

IMPROVED ACCESS TO DATA AND INFORMATION

Support users in providing and accessing information

PHC RIS provided technical and content support to Divisions and SBOs when they completed their Annual Plans and their 6 and 12 Month Reports, through written material (user guides), website resources (Planning & Reporting Support pages), and the PHC RIS Assist free call phone line and email. PHC RIS Assist is a dedicated service for stakeholders to access advice and information on all PHC RIS products and services.

In 2008 the PHC RIS Assist phone line received over 1500 requests for information from stakeholders and provided responses to 99% of these within one working day. PHC RIS Assist received a total of 569 calls in 2008. The busiest months were January, February (with 136 calls) and September which coincided with the peak planning and reporting periods for the Divisions Network in 2008. More than 260 emails were received through the PHC RIS Assist email in 2008.

Users were satisfied with the timely support they received for all PHC RIS information, products and services. Approximately 15% of Divisions and SBOs specifically thanked PHC RIS for help provided or responded positively about the work PHC RIS was doing, in their feedback on the planning and reporting processes.

I could not have hoped for a quicker or more responsive service!
- Officer, Department of Health, NSW

Maintain information management systems

In 2008 PHC RIS maintained its Information Management Systems in particular the website; data collection components and enhancements to the Planning & Reporting on-line system; and the Roadmap of Australian Primary Health Care Research (ROAR).

PHC RIS website

PHC RIS’ comprehensive website <www.phcris.org.au> is the centre of our IM systems. Our dedicated IT staff members ensure it is functional, up to date and easy to navigate. Traffic to the website increased by approximately 22% from an average of 911 hits per day  in 2007 to an average of 1024 hits per day in 2008.

Planning & Reporting on-line system

All Divisions completed the 2007-08 Annual Survey of Divisions on-line, with most Divisions (112) and SBOs (6) completing their 2007-08 6 and 12 Month Reports on-line as well. The resulting information on the activities and attributes of Divisions was again made accessible through a suite of online tools designed to suit the needs of people within the Divisions network, researchers and policy advisors.

The Activities of Divisions section of the PHC RIS website continued to provide complete information on Divisions plans and reports during the Outcome Based Funding period from 1999-2005, individual PDF files of Divisions and SBOs 12 month reports for 2005-06, and online display of Divisions 12 month reports for 2006-07.

Supplementing these data is the standardised Divisions information derived by successive years of the Annual Survey of Divisions. This information was provided in multiple formats including Divisions Profiles, Mapping Tool, Benchmarking Tool, Key Characteristics, and more than 100 Fast Facts pages. Information for Divisions includes help information, technical details of NPIs for 2008-09, Divisions profiles and links to the population health profiles.

Roadmap Of Australian primary health care Research (ROAR)

In 2008 the ROAR database remained one of PHC RIS’ most popular on-line resources, as one of the few sources of information on current primary health care research projects and researcher profiles in Australia. Maintaining its currency requires considerable effort by PHC RIS staff to add new profiles and projects. The manager Ellen McIntyre always made good use of her camera at PHCRED state meetings to ensure photos of new researchers were included with their profiles. Feeding back information to researchers about the top ten hits was also popular. ROAR, with 440 profiles (109 new in 2008) and 579 research projects, was viewed 35,178 times, an average of 2932 hits per month, up from 2469 hits per month in 2007.

Develop and implement new IM systems

The outcomes of the Divisions of General Practice Network under the NQPS framework were readily accessible for the first time when the on-line display (the final component of the Planning and Reporting on-line data management system) was implemented in 2008. This includes the 12 Month Reports for 2006-07 submitted by 107 Divisions and 7 State Based Organisations. The National Performance Indicators could be viewed in the Indicator Calculator which presented aggregated results for quantitative indicators at national and state level, with individual indicator results and explanatory text also visible. Activities and attributes of Divisions were again made accessible through a suite of on-line tools designed to suit the needs of people within the Divisions network, researchers and policy advisors.

Display and disseminate data and information

Information collected by PHC RIS is disseminated principally via the PHC RIS website and email, and through products such as PHC RIS eBulletin, ROAR, PHC RIS infoBytes and PHC RIS infonet. The data and information collected via the Planning and Reporting on-line system and the Annual Survey of Divisions is also disseminated through these channels but principally through the suite of on-line products developed from ASD data (Divisions Mapping, Key Characteristics and Benchmarking Tools; Division Profiles pages; and Fast Facts).