Collaboration is helping us better understand how to deliver person-centred, value-based care
01 May 2024
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Western Health have collaborated on a project that is helping health services across our region better understand how to deliver person-centred, value-based at home care.
The cross-health service team has been exploring the use of Patient Reported Outcomes and Experience Measures to track and better understand patient needs in hospital care at home services.
Patient Reported Measures provide a way of measuring health outcomes from a patient’s perspective and capture a person’s perception of their own health through questionnaires. The process enables patients to report on their quality of life, daily functioning, symptoms and other aspects of their health and well-being. This information then helps health services improve the care provided to patients and helps fill a vital gap in our knowledge about the outcomes that matter to our patients.
The pilot program ran from July to October 2023 to test the feasibility of using Patient-Reported Measures with Hospital Care at Home patients. The pilot aimed to provide information and tools that could support the implementation of Patient Reported Measures across health services in the future.
Over 80 patients participated in the pilot, citing sleep disturbance, ability to participate in social roles and activities, and pain interference as key health concerns. Health services used this information to make improvements to the pilot and then ran the questionnaire again. Physical function, fatigue, sleep, pain interference and pain intensity were all found to have improved in the second round.
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Dr Vikas Wadhwa, Medical Director of Ambulatory Services at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, one of the participating health services says the pilot proved the effectiveness of a patient-focused approach to care. Dr Wadhwa said that measurement of these outcomes allowed for a more timely response and communication with patients receiving cancer treatment at home. This in turn helped to promptly alleviate concerns and improve symptoms during their treatment. Patients also reported this to be a positive experience of care. Working together has enabled health services to compare their outcomes and create shared resources to support the broader implementation of Patient Reported Measures in the future. The pilot's success has also led to further work to integrate Patient Reported Measures into existing ways of providing care. |
The West Metro Health Service Partnership brings together some of Victoria’s premier health services to build a more resilient health system through collaboration and reform. Our members include Werribee Mercy Hospital (WMH), Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac), the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), the Royal Women’s Hospital (the Women’s), and Western Health. The North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN) is an associate member.