A platform designed by eHealth NSW in collaboration with the Agency for Clinical Innovation is giving patients and their carers the opportunity to provide direct and timely feedback about their health-related experiences.
First rolled out in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District in February, at its heart is a focus on identifying what matters to patients, with the long-term aim to improve health care experiences.
For clinicians and service providers, it’s an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of their patient’s concerns and lives, and a chance to improve patient-centred care.
Already live at over 60 sites, there are another 20 sites set to come online as part of the Patient Reported Measures (PRM) program in the next few months.
Consumers and clinicians help design platform
Co-designed with significant input from consumers, carers, clinicians and service managers, the survey platform can be accessed via an easy-to-use online portal.
The digital solution, known as the Health Outcomes and Patient Experience (HOPE) platform, gives patients the opportunity to communicate with their health professional and discuss their illness or care impacts on their health and wellbeing.
It also captures information on the patient’s experience with various services. The surveys will be completed over the course of the patient or carer’s healthcare journey to ensure their care team better understands what matters to them.
In turn, the care team will have immediate access to reports and dashboards, as well as the ability to run their own reports and adjust their patient’s care plan as their journey continues.
Patient reported measures to drive system-wide improvement
The aim of this new collection of data is to provide health professionals with a deeper understanding of a person’s disease burden, symptoms or treatment impacts, so they can provide more holistic care.
The aggregate data will be used to identify what is working well across health services and drive improvements in service delivery.
NSW Health will also use the aggregate data to evaluate progress towards a value-based healthcare system: measuring outcomes and experiences that matter to patients.
The HOPE PRM solution continues to receive positive feedback from patients and health professionals.
“The survey was great. I think it is a great tool to address my depression, because let’s face it that’s what I have and can get help with it. I was always told growing up not to complain and I find it hard to express how I’m feeling but the survey was a great tool to express that,” said, an inpatient with chronic heart failure.
