Overview

The Australian Better Health Initiative (ABHI) was announced on the 10 February 2006 by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). ABHI is a $500 million joint Commonwealth, State and Territory program that will run over 4 years focussing on prevention and reducing the burden of chronic disease.

The five priority areas of the initiative include;

• Promoting healthy lifestyles;
• Supporting the early detection of lifestyle risks and chronic disease;
• Supporting lifestyle and risk modification;
• Encouraging active patient self management of chronic disease; and
• Improving integration and coordination of care.

The Australian health ministers approved the ABHI Implementation plan in July 2006, including $28 million to be used to improve the ‘integration of primary care services’ called Primary Care Integration Program.

The SEA-GP (Brisbane) ABHI Primary Care Integration Program aims to:

• Improve communication and linkages between GPs and other primary health care providers;
• Make better use of existing primary and community care services;
• Utilise tools and strategies to assist in chronic disease management; and
• Contribute to the development of local chronic disease care pathways and referral tools.

Improve communication and linkages between GPs and other primary care providers through:

• Assisting with the implementation of secure messaging and PKI for general practice to receive discharge summaries and send electronic referrals;
• Continued promotion and facilitation of the uptake of secure messaging methods for GPs and allied health associates;
• Implementing an electronic referral system in one maternity facility initially and assist practices with the implementation of the GP Portal (Mater Health Services); and
• Participation in the implementation of a Shared Electronic Health Record (SEHR) piloted by GPpartners.

Better use of existing primary and community care services:

• Continue to promote the use of best practice referral pathways as developed for diabetes; and
• Develop and promote business models for the sharing of care across appropriate health care providers to maximise the workforce capacity and reduce unnecessary work and duplication of services by individual providers.

Utilise tools and strategies to assist in chronic disease management

• Assist general practices to implement and manage registers and manage their own databases to inform them of their patient population profile; and
• Assist general practices to develop a practice profile to inform development of appropriate care and business models within the practice, making best use of available staff and informing future staffing (skills selection) decisions and work with general practices to develop markers for measuring their own improvement.

Contribute to the development of local chronic disease care pathways and referral tools:

• The promotion and implementation of best practice Pathway for the Management of Patients with Diabetes in conjunction with other initiatives including the Connecting Health Care in Communities (CHIC) Type 2 Diabetes Project.

Over the life of the ABHI Primary Care Integration Program 80% of SEA-GP general practices will be involved.

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Program Governance

The governance for the SEA-GP ABHI Primary Care Integration Program is provided by the ABHI Reference Group. The purpose of the reference group is to provide advice and oversee the implementation of the program in line with the program aims. Members of the ABHI Reference Group include a general practitioner, practice manager, and representatives from MetroSouth Health Service District, Mater Health Services, General Practice Queensland, GPpartners and SEA-GP.

The SEA-GP ABHI Primary Care Integration Program has established an ABHI Change Management Working Group. This working group is looking at the promotion of secure messaging for the exchange of patient information, as well as the use of technology, databases and profiles in general practice. The members of the ABHI Change Management Working Group include general practitioners, practice manager, registered nurse, allied health professionals, pharmacists and SEA-GP program officers. The working group have developed and sourced a number of resources relevant to secure messaging, including cost benefit analyses for general practice and allied health, and data management.

Members of the ABHI Change Management Working Group have designed and provided education sessions for GPs, specialists, allied health professionals and practice staff on secure messaging. Dr Peter Adkins (GP, Birkdale Medical Centre), Dr Russell Hunter (GP, Pivotal Health) and Chris Turner (Physiotherapist and managing director of Coast Consultant Physiotherapy) present the education sessions covering the benefits, tips and tricks and live demonstrations of how secure messaging works. There have been three education sessions held to date that have been both well attended and well received. The ABHI Change Management Working Group will be holding further secure messaging education events on exchanging patient information electronically with demonstrations for general practices, specialists and allied health in March 2010.

The ABHI Change Management Working Group also put together What it is like using Secure Messaging - Testimonials.

Data Management

The ABHI Change Management Working Group has also been involved in the delivery of an education session (Does your Health Record need a Check up?) and the development of resources on data management available through the Database Health Check.

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Resources:
Secure messaging

• Cost benefits for secure messaging for:
  • General Practice
  • Allied Health Professionals
  • Allied Health Professionals working in Aged Care
  • Specialist Practice (to be developed)
• Medicare PKI
• Tips for making PKI easy to install
• eCertificate Application for Secure Messaging (individual PKI)
• Installation and configuration of iKey
• Medical Objects Application Process
• Provider Number Tips and Tricks for Medical Objects Word Plug-in

GPs from the ABHI Change Management Working Group often write "tips and tricks" regarding secure messaging including:

Chronic Disease:

• Measure Up – National Obesity Campaign
• Help your patient’s Measure Up

Data Management:

• Cleaning up your Medical software databases
• Setting the ground rules in your Practice for ensuring clean data
• Consistency in Recording health information

Secure Messaging and Electronic Communication

• Electronic Specialists Reports - how to determine where you would like electronic reports kept in patient files in Medical Director
• Sending Electronic Referrals
• Reduce scanning costs and time
• Hidden Reports
• Useful Short Cut when using Medical Objects for e-Referrals
• Do you know how to retrieve and find electronic reports in your software?
• Encourage Medical Specialists & Allied Health Professionals to use secure email
• Medical Objects – cost savings
• Medical Objects- eReferral tips
• Message received?
  

Chronic Disease Resources – Type 2 Diabetes

The SEA-GP ABHI Primary Care Integration Program has worked with the Connecting Healthcare in Communities (CHIC) Type 2 Diabetes Project. The outcomes of this project will be delivered to all SEA-GP practices through the ABHI Primary Care Integration Program.

The CHIC Type 2 Diabetes Project has developed an Aligned Provider Network with 11 general practices and 17 allied health professionals currently listed and a Care and Referral Pathway that describes the process of Type 2 diabetes care consistent with best practice.

Other resources include:

• SEA-GP Example of a Practice Approach to Diabetes Care - Task list
• Nurse led Diabetes Clinics

Please refer Info Page