PIP QI measures
Did you know?
PIP QI is an incentive program that rewards practices for collecting data and driving continuous quality improvement.
Accreditation is a formal external assessment that confirms your practice meets national safety, quality, and governance standards.
PIP QI supports ongoing improvement, while accreditation demonstrates you meet established benchmarks.
Using the 10 PIP QI measures for quality improvement
The Practice Incentives Program (PIP) Quality Improvement (QI) Incentive is a payment to general practices that participate in QI activities in partnership with their local PHN.
To be eligible, practices also commit to submitting nationally consistent, de-identified data, against 10 Key Improvement Measures that contribute to local, regional and national health outcomes.
This financial incentive aims to encourage practices to work towards delivering optimal care and ultimately, improve health outcomes.
Click through the 10 quality improvement measures (QIMs) below to see the current reported data for each QIM.
QIM #1: HbA1c recorded (Type 1 diabetes)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 48.9% of regular clients of all ages who had a recorded diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes had an HbA1c result recorded within the previous 12 months in their GP record – lower than the 52.6% across Queensland and 57.3% nationally.
48.9%
NQPHN region
52.6%
Queensland region
57.3%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #1: HbA1c recorded (Type 2 diabetes)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 64.6% of regular clients of all ages who had a recorded diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes had an HbA1c result recorded within the previous 12 months in their GP record – lower than the 68.6% across Queensland and 72.1% nationally.
64.6%
NQPHN region
68.6%
Queensland region
72.1%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #1: HbA1c recorded (undefined diabetes)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 56.8% of regular clients of all ages who had undefined diabetes recorded had an HbA1c result recorded within the previous 12 months in their GP record – lower than the 58.8% across Queensland and 65.7% nationally.
56.8%
NQPHN region
58.8%
Queensland region
65.7%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #2: Smoking status recorded
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 73.8% of regular clients aged 15 years and over had their smoking status recorded in their GP record (where recorded means in the previous 12 months for those aged 15-29 and since the age of 30 for those aged 30 years and over) – the same as the 73.8% across Queensland, and higher than 68.6% nationally.
73.8%
NQPHN region
73.8%
Queensland region
68.6%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #3: Height/weight recorded
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 31.2% of regular clients aged 15 years and over had their height and weight measurements recorded in their GP record within the previous 12 months – lower than the 32.6% across Queensland but higher than 26.7% nationally.
31.2%
NQPHN region
32.6%
Queensland region
26.7%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #4: Influenza vax recorded (aged 65+)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 52.1% of regular clients aged 65 years and over had an influenza immunisation status recorded in their GP record in the previous 15 months – lower than the 54.2% across Queensland and 54% nationally.
52.1%
NQPHN region
54.2%
Queensland region
54.0%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #5: Influenza vax recorded (diabetes)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 43.4% of regular clients with diabetes had an influenza immunisation status recorded in their GP record within the previous 15 months – lower than the 46.1% across Queensland and 46.4% nationally.
43.4%
NQPHN region
46.1%
Queensland region
46.4%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #6: Influenza vax recorded (COPD)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 52.2% of regular clients with a COPD diagnosis had an influenza immunisation status recorded in their GP record within the previous 15 months – lower than the 54.7% across Queensland and 55.9% nationally.
52.2%
NQPHN region
54.7%
Queensland region
55.9%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #7: Alcohol consumption recorded
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 70.1% of regular clients aged 15 years and over had their alcohol consumption status recorded in their GP record – lower than the 73.3% across Queensland but higher than 65.2% nationally.
70.1%
NQPHN region
73.3%
Queensland region
65.2%
National (Aus-wide)
QIM #8: CVD risk factors recorded
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 62.7% of regular clients aged 45 to 74 years without a CVD diagnosis had the necessary risk factors recorded in their GP record to enable CVD risk assessment – higher than the 61.8% across Queensland and 59.9% nationally.
62.7%
NQPHN
61.8%
Queensland
59.9%
National
QIM #9: Cervical screening recorded
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 46.7% of female regular clients aged 25 to 74 years had a cervical screening test recorded in their GP record within the previous 5 years – higher than the 44.3% across Queensland and 43.7% nationally.
46.7%
NQPHN
44.3%
Queensland
43.7%
National
QIM #10: Blood pressure recorded (diabetes)
As of July 2025, the NQPHN region reported 58.8% of regular clients with diabetes had blood pressure recorded in their GP record within the previous 6 months – lower than the 59.8% across Queensland but higher than the 58.4% nationally.
58.8%
NQPHN
59.8%
Queensland
58.4%
National
Data source: AIHW
The Improvement Measures are not designed to assess individual general practice or general practitioner performance. They do support a regional and national understanding of chronic disease management in areas of high need.
This activity focuses on how to meet the PIP QI requirements and advance progress on the 10 Key Improvement Measures within your practice.
Setting a goal
There are 10 different PIPQI Measures. We suggest starting with one that may be informed by your data and/or practice population needs. Once completing QI for one measure, you might want to consider starting another.
- Tip: Consider using the PIPQI measures to create an annual plan and break down quarters to focus on one PIPQI measure for your QI project.
Resources to support your QI
To achieve this goal, you can access a range of resources:
- Review the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing resources on PIPQI
- PIPQI Improvement Measures outlines the 10 measures
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing Fact Sheet
Bringing the team together
Kickstart your quality improvement activity by bringing together a quality improvement team. Together, you’ll identify the key challenges and come up with innovative solutions, ensuring you all share a clear understanding of the improvement objectives and strategies.
Engage with your NQPHN Primary Care Engagement Team; they can offer tailored support, resources and guidance to enhance your QI efforts wherever you are in your QI journey.
Consider the following for your practice:
- bring your QI team together to decide on an improvement idea
- plan, start, and finish a QI activity
- facilitate and document QI meetings
- create practice-wide systems improvement
- gather data and information
- review current practice PIPQI data and processes for QI activities
- identify and discuss any common barriers and enablers to optimal care.
Maximising your data
What data might you need? You’ll need data to understand the problem and measure your outcomes. We suggest you start with:
Primary Sense
Primary Sense can provide insight, detailed reports and targeted guidance on improving data quality. The following reports are available within Primary Sense:
- PIP QI Report – 10 Measures: Reports on the 10 PIPQI Measures as a % completion rate.
- Patients missing PIPQI or Accreditation Measures: Identifies all patients who are missing one or more PIPQI or accreditation measures.
- Patients booked in with missing PIPQI measures: Identifies patients with an existing appointment in the next two weeks who are missing one or more PIPQI measures recorded.
Clinical software
Ensure you are optimising the use of your practice software. For example, ensure your team understand the importance of using coded diagnoses, recording information correctly in the software and actioning items appropriately.
Improvement ideas for inspiration
To achieve your goal, you can consider several improvement ideas depending on which measure you choose to focus on. Some examples across the 10 PIPQI Measures could include:
- Undertake a seasonal awareness campaign to increase influenza immunisation for priority populations. Utilise the Primary Sense prompt Winter Wellness to opportunistically offer influenza immunisation during appointments.
- Complete an audit of diabetes patients to ensure they are coded correctly and have had a HbA1c recorded in the last 12 months. The Primary Sense report Diabetes Mellitus will be helpful to identify patients.
- Utilise the Primary Sense Report Patients booked in with missing PIPQI measures to develop a workflow and create a reminder in the patient file to ensure their records are updated, particularly smoking and alcohol status.
- Develop a process for the practice nurse to opportunistically see patients prior to their GP appointment to obtain height, weight, waist measurements, BP, and smoking and alcohol status.
- Consider joining the NQPHN-supported quality improvement program, PHASES, to strengthen cardiovascular disease prevention among your patients.
Remember to self-report your QI project as a CPD activity
QI is a great tool for measuring tangible outcomes and demonstrating improvement in patient care!
GPs can use the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles to self-report continuing professional development (CPD) hours to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. They align with the ‘Measuring Outcomes’ category, however GPs can determine which category best fits with each activity. Watch this video for more information on reporting CPD hours.
Share your results
Share results with your NQPHN Primary Care Engagement Team and with your patients. Ensure you document your quality improvement activity to meet PIP QI guidelines and for CPD purposes.