Quality Improvement (QI) is an activity undertaken with the purpose of reviewing, monitoring, evaluating, and improving the quality of services, processes, or experiences delivered at your practice.

Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) is dedicated to assisting providers in engaging in quality improvement activities. This toolkit provides the information required to successfully carry out quality improvement by guiding you through a process of:

1. ensuring quality data
2. identifying areas for improvement
3. planning QI activities
4. implementing QI activities
5. evaluating QI activities.

Undertaking QI allows your practice to deliver improved care and health outcomes to people in your community, as well as improving staff wellbeing and increasing the sustainability of your business by reducing costs or finding new revenue streams.

In your practice, QI activities could focus on:

• safety - avoiding harm to patients
• effectiveness - providing evidence-based care and only providing services that are likely to be of benefit
• patient-centered care - providing care that is responsive to each individual patient’s preferences, needs, and values
• timeliness - reducing waiting times for care and avoiding harmful delays
• efficiency - avoiding waste
• equity - providing care of the same quality regardless of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, location, or socio-economic status.[1]

[1] North West Melbourne PHN, Quality Improvement Guide and Tools, Edition 2, pg. 6

Chronic conditions are not passed from person to person, they are of long duration and generally slow progression.  The four main types are cardiovascular diseases (eg. heart attack and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (eg. chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and asthma), and diabetes.  A chronic condition usually lasts for more than three months and do not have a single, predominant condition, but rather they experience multimorbidity which is the presence of two or more chronic conditions in a person at the same time.

Chronic conditions kill nearly 40 million people every year, with cancer, diabetes, respiratory disorders, and cardiovascular disease accounting for about 80% of deaths due to chronic conditions.  Mental health is also considered a chronic condition

If your patient has a chronic medical condition, they may be eligible for services under the following:

• General Practitioner Management Plan (GPMP)
• Team Care Arrangements (TCAs)
• Mental Health Case Conferences (MHCC)
• General Practitioner Management Review
• Mental Health Case Conference Review
• Medication Review