For Practices

How would you like to be involved in a Program that’s full of ideas on how to achieve improved health outcomes for patients by helping you build stronger practice teams and enhance your systems and efficiency?

With the APCC Program, it’s all about getting together with colleagues at a series of learning workshops. You’ll exchange ideas, share experiences and learn about practical quality improvement skills, which can all be easily implemented using the successful 'Model for Improvement'.

Then, you can apply what you’ve learnt to deliver measurable, systematic, and sustainable improvements in the care you provide to patients. 

To date, more than 60 Divisions and over 800 Australian general practices have achieved significant improvements through their involvement in the APCC Program.

 

Benefits of Participation 

Just think of the kind of improvements you could make, such as:

  • Improved health outcomes for patients with chronic diseases
  • Doctors running on time
  • Accurate and up-to-date patient registers
  • Improved team based culture within the practice
  • Doctors being available at short notice
  • Patients receiving best standard of care possible
  • Improved GP and staff morale.

By applying the user-friendly 'Model for Improvement', teamed with local, hands-on support, you’ll be able to implement change in small manageable cycles and identify where change actually leads to improvement.  The good thing is, the Program’s quality improvement methods and skills have already been tried and tested in over 800 Australian general practices, so you can be sure they work.

Below are some changes that other practices have achieved through the APCC Program:

  • Improved patient care through better management of chronic diseases
  • Increased best practice care through better use of information systems (both medical and business systems) 
  • A cultural shift from individual patient care to population based care
  • Changes in service delivery to improve efficiency within general practice
  • Increased use of protocols and procedures to improve practice operations
  • Enhanced medical software reporting and functionality (i.e. data cleaning to produce valid registers and reports)
  • Increased use of patient self-management plans
  • Evolving roles among practice staff to better meet patient demand
  • Increased uptake of practice nurses in chronic disease management
  • Better relationships with external agencies contributing to patient care (i.e.hospitals and allied health professionals).
  • To view practice testimonials and more comprehensive case studies of what some practices have achieved, click here.

 

Requirements of Participation 

To be involved in the APCC Program, a practice needs to meet certain minimum requirements, which are:to: 

  • have one GP and one staff member attend each of the learning workshops 
  • undertake work in each of the 'waves' topic areas 
  • submit at least one PDSA every month for each topic area 
  • complete and submit data on a monthly basis for at least 18 months 

 

Set aside dedicated time to work on the Program
Practices are required to commit time each week to undertake Program work. While significant time is not required, regular dedicated time helps participants move through their change agenda at a reasonable pace. 

Attend and actively participate in the learning workshops
The program consists of one orientation session and three learning workshops. There will be activity periods of approximately three months between learning workshops 1, 2 and 3 when practices will be able to test and implement change in their organisations.

Practices will continue to submit data for a subsequent 12 months after learning workshop 3, to track their progress. 

Collect and report data, and use PDSA cycles to test and implement change
During the activity periods, practices test and implement change ideas through the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles. They also submit monthly measures in each topic area to track their improvement. 

 

Funding for Practices

As state, local, and virtual waves each require different amounts of time away from the practice, funding varies for each. The IFA will fund practices the following amounts for participation: 

State Wave $7,500
Local Waves $2,000
Virtual Waves $1,000
(All amounts are GST exclusive.)

While there is more time away from practice in the state based events, participants do benefit from a richer workshop environment and the opportunity to network, share experiences with, and learn from, a greater number of people, from different areas.

 

Professional Development Points for GPs and Practice Staff

Participants from practices involved in the Collaborative Program are eligible to earn points with the following providers for their involvement in APCC activities: 

RACGP QA&CPD
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Quality Assurance & Continuing Professional Development 

ACRRM PDP
Australian College Rural and Remote Medicine Professional Development Program

RACN CNE
Royal Australian College of Nursing Continuing Nursing Education

AAPM CPD
Australian Association of Practice Managers Continuing Professional Development 

IFA has applied to the following organisations for points. 

  • RACGP
  • ACRRM
  • RACN
  • AAPM

Last Updated 10 March 2010