Better outcomes for people with chronic disease – Submission by ACMH
The Australian Government has commissioned ‘The Primary Health Care Advisory Group’ which will ‘investigate options into the reform of primary health care to support patients with complex and chronic illness, and the treatment of mental health conditions.’ The Advisory Group has released a discussion paper ‘Better Outcomes for People with Chronic and Complex Health Conditions through primary health care‘. The Australian Centre for the Medical Home has made this submission to the group. The submission argues that General Practice is well positioned to...
Read MoreHow safe is your prescribing?
We know that there is a large gap between the evidence of how medications should be used, and what happens in practice. It is estimated that between 2 and 3% of hospital admissions in Australia are medication related. What can we do about it? In a study published this month in the MJA, Gillian Caughey and colleagues looked at the prevalence of suboptmal medication management in 164,000 patient admission over 5 years. They have developed evidence-based medication-related indicators of suboptimal processes of care before hospitalisation that are specific to the Australian health care...
Read MoreIdentifying Most Valuable Care
What do the top performing family practices do better than the rest? The Peterson Center on Healthcare identified 11 ‘bright spot’ primary care practices across the US – teams that deliver high quality care at a much lower than average cost. (Article is here) They identified 10 features that these high performing sites had in common. 1. Practices are ‘always on.’ Patients have a sense that their care team is ‘always available,’ and that they will be able to reach someone who knows them and can help them quickly whether the practice is open or closed. Practices offer...
Read MoreShared Decision Making – 30 Years On, What’s Changed? What’s Next?
Shared Decision Making has three main objectives : patients who are, to the extent they desire, well-informed about options relevant to the decision they are making, helped in clarifying what matters most to them about the decision, and involved in the process of decision making. The Evidence Communication Innovation Collaborative (ECIC)’ of the Institute of Medicine has published a paper that explores ways to improve the communication and understanding of evidence important to decision-making in health care. It has been more than 30 years since the President’s Commission urged the...
Read MoreIs General Practice good value for money?
Last year taxpayers spent A$6.3 billion on GP services through Medicare, about 6% of the total government health expenditure. The authors of the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) program published in the Conversation their assessment of whether this represented good value for money. Their conclusion, as outlined in the infographic above, is that We get the best bang for our buck from General Practice. Discouraging GP visits would increase overall health costs This supports our calculation that The cost of one admission to a public hospital is more than the cost of 15...
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