Sydney North Health Network (SNHN) are seeking expressions of interest from General Practices who would like to participate in a program to support timely diagnosis of dementia, improved medication management and care planning, service navigation and support for family/carers.
About the program
The program will provide support to participating practices to analyse current data and care pathways, provide data reports, develop an individual improvement plan, facilitate best practice with access to education, research and peer support.
In Australia, dementia is the second leading cause of death, and currently an estimated 250 people are joining the population with dementia each day. In the absence of a cure there is increasing focus on risk reduction, timely diagnosis and early intervention. Diagnosing dementia can be difficult owing to the insidious onset of the disease.
The Department of Health National Framework for Action on Dementia 2015-2019 states, “A person’s main healthcare provider, their General Practitioner has an important role in recognising, assessing, diagnosing and providing support”.
In response to the national focus and the need to have benchmark Quality Indicators in Dementia diagnosis and care, SNHN in collaboration with The Improvement Foundation formed an expert reference panel in 2016 to develop the specifications.
Benefits for the Practice
• Access to meaningful practice data
• Provision of monthly Practice Benchmarking report
• Improved patient care via streamlining of practice processes
• Peer mentoring for practice staff, including general practitioners and practice nurses
• Networking opportunities with other practices interested in quality improvement
• Access to experienced primary health system ‘navigators’
• Improved communication between multiple care providers
• Participate in quality improvement activities (such as PDSA cycles), and contribute to accreditation requirements (general practice “standards”)
• CATPlus Suite of Tools, Healthlink Secure Messaging will be provided free of charge if not already installed with access to training.
• Priority access to dementia and other related training. CPD points available for education/orientation sessions *
• Identification of additional revenue generation opportunities through better utilisation of MBS item numbers
Eligibility
• Accredited
• Practice nurse
• Principal GP/GP’s participation and team approach will be required
• CATPlus Suite of tools installed (or willingness for installation), to enable data analysis.
• Digital health enabled (two way secure messaging, uploading shared health summaries to My Health Record)
• Commitment to be engaged in training and clinical practice improvement opportunities, and to support practice staff with these activities
What is required?
- A passion for improving care for patients with Dementia.
- Monthly catch-up meetings, face to face or tele/video conference with Primary Care Advancement Coordinator.
- Commitment to participate in scheduled training as listed below:
- Orientation workshop – February 2022
- Disease focused education – April 2022
- Workshops for collaboration with other participating General Practices at a halfway point in the program, and at the end of the program – TBC
If your practice is interested in participating:
Please complete page 3 of this PDF and return to hpatel@snhn.org.au by 10/12/2021.