The Pen CS Awards recognise excellence in data-driven quality improvement in general practice and Aboriginal Medical Services across Australia.
Two general practices in country South Australia have been nominated:
Broughton Clinic - Patient Centred Care award
In 2021 Country SA PHN were approached by Healthily to participate in a Shingles Recall Pilot Program to support a recall of eligible patients to receive the Zostavax shingles vaccination.
Dr Alison Edwards from the clinic agreed to participate in the pilot program and indicated their data search using PenCS CAT 4 showed they had 490 patients from the 70-79 age group who had not had a shingles vaccine.
SMS messages were sent to this cohort encouraging them to contact the clinic to make an appointment to discuss and if appropriate proceed with a shingles vaccine. Broughton Clinic had a 64% response rate, the highest result from all participating practices of the Shingles Recall Pilot in Country South Australia.
Dr Edwards mentioned the Pilot had been a useful reminder to target this age group with shingles vaccination as well as Pneumovax which has been another of their targets in recent years as a Quality Improvement measure.
To maximise vaccination opportunities in the community, Broughton Clinic recognised that not all patients had mobile phones and patients were contacted on a landline and offered an appointment. An afternoon was also spent at the Residential Aged Care Facility vaccinating those in this age group.
A Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) Cycle for Accreditation was developed from the pilot to further enhance Quality Improvement for the practice.
The Pilot result has had a positive outcome not only for the Port Broughton community but the cost saving of avoidable hospital admissions for country South Australia.
Goolwa Medical Centre - Patient Centred Care award
It was identified Goolwa Medical Centre were not previously promoting health heart checks or 45 – 49 checks for the community. The Heart Health website indicates that “One fifth of Australians aged 45–74 years have a high chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years.”
Goolwa Medical Centre retrieved information from PenCS regarding the demographics of the practice and saw nearly 400 patients in the 45 – 49 age group and twenty plus Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander patients over the age of 30. Knowing the criteria, PenCs was used to add some of the risk factors which would determine the higher risk patients. From this list, an SMS message was sent to these patients and received an excellent response. Whilst, Goolwa Medical Centre is a very busy practice, in 2020/2021 Goolwa Medical Centre had not completed any heart health checks. This year, they have completed over 100 so far.
The program continues and are now expanding to look at a model of care program for young DVA patients under the age of 60. The DVA patients are now receiving services to assist with their health care which they were not aware was available. Goolwa Medical Centre have been working with the local RSL veterans which has been invaluable.
Country SA PHN wish both general practices all the best in their nominations.
