Improvement work in Australia
As IFA is a relatively new organisation, our work in Australia is beginning to grow. To date the Improvement Foundation has been involved in the following programs;
Australian Primary Care Collaboratives
UK Improvement Foundation was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government of Australia to support the implementation of the APCC and operations commenced in 2004 with a focus on better access to primary health care, diabetes and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Whilst the IFA as an organisation played no part in the rolling out of this national program, all of the current IFA staff had significant input into the accomplished operations of the APCC program which are comparable to English and Scottish successes.
OATSIH Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative
The Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative (CQII) has been developed under the Service Development and Reporting Framework (SDRF). Every OATSIH funded service has been offered funding once every three years to support quality improvement activities. Although the guidelines for these projects are very broad, the funds are to be spent on examining how the service is operating rather than expanding service delivery.
In March 2007, IFA was contracted to provide deliverables for CQII organisational reviews, plan development, implementation and ongoing reviews for OATSIH funded Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander health services. These include services in Adelaide, regional South Australia, New South Wales and Darwin.
The contract deliverables for each health service include an initial review of the organisation, assistance in the 3 year CQII plan and other action plans. The process commences with an independent review, carried out by IFA who works with the organisation to identify areas for improvement. IFA is then required to return to the organisation each year to work with them to evaluate the improvement process, and to plan for the coming year.
Collaboratives and Quality Improvement Training
IFA has been undertaking training to Divisions that are interested in acting on quality improvement related to the APCC program and collecting and reporting on associated measures. Training content is ideally suited to divisional staff who have practice support or program management roles.
The key objectives of the training program are:
- Increase awareness of the Collaborative methodology and how it works
- Transfer quality improvement skills
- Detail the importance of measurement and its role in improvement
- Consider how the Division can apply key 'learnings' from the APCC
- Increase the number of practices engaged in quality improvement
For more information contact the IFA office (08) 8422 7400
