Division matters

Fast Facts update

Cecilia Moretti, PHC RIS

Fast Facts is a new PHC RIS feature designed to facilitate quick access to key pieces of data drawn from the 2004-05 Annual Survey of Divisions Report, Making the connections. The facts presented in this format aim to provide a composite ‘snapshot' of Division characteristics and activities in specific primary health related areas. This information provided in brief, concise points but with links to more detailed sources, is intended for convenient use by Divisions, other health stakeholders, researchers and policy makers. The following is an example of Fast Facts in practice.

In 2004-05, collaboration on research and evaluation projects showed that:

• Nationally, 56% of Divisions collaborated with university departments of general practice or rural health, and 45% collaborated with other partners.
• Notably:
• Collaborative projects with universities mainly targeted:
  • Mental health (13 Divisions)
  • Chronic disease (12 Divisions)
• Remote Divisions did not report any university collaboration

For planning, research and evaluation purposes:

• Over 90% of Divisions used HIC (now Medicare Australia data), GP surveys and Census data
• Over 70% of Divisions used State Based Organisations (SBOs), other Divisions, Universities, and the National Prescribing Service for support

There was a decrease in Divisions providing aggregated population health data to practices, compared with 2003-04:

• The biggest decrease was a fall in the provision of data for monitoring outcomes, from 26% to 11% of Divisions.

For more information contact:
Cecilia Moretti
E: cecilia.moretti@flinders.edu.au

Web-based planning & reporting for Divisions & SBOs

Simon Patterson, PHC RIS

Update

The National Quality and Performance System (NQPS) includes a planning and reporting framework¹ which requires Divisions of General Practice and State Based Organisations (SBOs) to submit Agreement Plans, Annual Plans, 6 and 12 Month Reports to the Department of Health and Ageing.

To date, these plans and reports have been completed using a standard structure Microsoft Word document (the pro forma). A number of issues have been identified with this format, and so PHC RIS has negotiated with the Department to adapt the pro forma to a web-based format. Some of the features and benefits of this new web-based format are outlined in a previous PHC RIS infonet article².

The Project is well under way

Since the start of this project in November 2006, the project Working Group has been formed and the PHC RIS web development team has been working hard to make the Planning Component of this system come to life. Excellent progress has been made with the system being tested ready for launch to Divisions and SBOs for early February.

What's next?

Near August of 2007 this same system will be extended to allow for 6 and 12 Month Report information to be entered by the Divisions and SBOs (the Reporting Component). A further development in late 2007 will allow this reporting information to be fed back to stakeholders via a web based reporting system based on ‘self service' principles where users select what information they want in what categories (the Display Component). Different levels of feedback could be provided to different stakeholders.

PHC RIS looks forward to the next stages of this project where further consultation will take place for the next components.

1. Learn more about the Framework at http://www.phcris.org.au/infobytes/div_framework/
2. Web-based planning & reporting for Divisions & SBOs, PHC RIS infonet December 2006, available at http://www.phcris.org.au/publications/infonet/index.php