Background

The Practice Incentives Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI) Incentive program commenced in August 2019. It aims to recognise and support general practices’ commitment to improving the care they provide to their clients. Participating practices will be supported to utilise the clinical information they have about their own communities and their knowledge of the particular needs of their own clients to develop innovative strategies to drive improvement.

As well as undertaking quality improvement activities, practices share a set of de-identified aggregated data on 10 Quality Improvement Measures (QIMs) with their local Primary Health Network (PHN) as defined in a data sharing agreement. This information will be collated by the Primary Health Networks (the Regional Data Custodian) to assist in supporting improvement and understanding population health needs. PHNs also share the aggregated data on 10 QIM with the National Data Custodian - the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) as defined in the Practice Incentive Program (PIP) Eligible Data Set Data Governance Framework (Department of Health 2020).

The AIHW has been appointed as the National Data Custodian of 10 QIMs and is responsible for managing the use, access and protection of data in the collated national data set. As a part of that role, AIHW has developed the metadata, data set specifications and indicator specifications for these measures using relevant components of the Indigenous Primary Health Care National Best Endeavours Data Set (IPHC NBEDS). It is envisaged that once implemented, metadata standards would enhance the value and consistency of the aggregate data on the 10 QIMs extracted from general practice clinical information systems contributing to the regional and national level analysis and research.              

PIP QI Incentive

The PIP QI Incentive is a payment to general practices for activities that support continuous quality improvement in patient outcomes and the delivery of best practice care. General practices enrolled in the PIPQI Incentive commit to implementing continuous quality improvement activities that support them in their role of managing their clients’ health. They also commit to submitting nationally consistent, de-identified general practice data, against 10 QIMs that contribute to local, regional and national health outcomes. The improvement measures allow general practices to understand which clients may benefit from preventative treatments, or may need recall to ensure effective management of a specified chronic disease (e.g. diabetes). This can help delay progression of the condition, improve quality of life, increase life expectancy, and decrease the need for high cost interventions.

Quality Improvement Measures

The collection of de-identified aggregate data on 10 QIMs are part of a system of quality improvement that includes reflective practice, a common data baseline, and data analysis. QIMs are not designed to assess individual general practices or general practitioner performance. Their purpose is to support a regional and national understanding of chronic disease management in areas of high need, and future iterations will provide emerging evidence on areas of high need. The Practice Incentives Program Eligible Data Set NBEDS 2020-21 describes the measures in detail.