Specialist Clinics Access P olicy Implementation Assessment Feedback & Discharge Summaries

1. Specialist Clinics Access Policy Implementation Assessment Feedback & Discharge Summaries Meredith Davey, Continuity of Care Projects Manager May 2014

2. West Gippsland Healthcare Group Assessment Feedback and Discharge Summary • Requested Policy Focus • Communication with referrer about the findings of initial assessment/ treatment • Discharge summary sent to referrer and/or other provider • Baseline Audit of Physiotherapy Services • Manual audit of 21 records, referred to the service October/November 2013 • Data illustrates baseline for communication with referrer regarding assessment and discharge

4. West Gippsland Healthcare Group Assessment Feedback and Discharge Summary • Findings • Communication regarding assessment findings • occurred rarely • - Often it was not appropriate to respond to the referral source, however there was no communication with the GP in these instances • Discharge communication occurred for 48% of the • clients • - Number of days between discharge and letter being sent ranged from 0 days - 4 months

5. West Gippsland Healthcare Group Assessment Feedback and Discharge Summary • Actions • Development of tools utilising organisational learning • around best practice: • - adoption of template from GP Feedback Project (identified Best Practice tool adapted to setting) • - development/adaptation of checklist tool for clinicians to prompt key processes and timeframes • Education for staff around policy requirements • Presentation of tools to other relevant service managers

8. West Gippsland Healthcare Group Assessment Feedback and Discharge Summary • Progress to date • GP Feedback and Clinical Checklist implemented April 2014 • Roll out to other staff occurring now • Wider education on Access Policy requirements also underway • Challenges • No previous framework or standardised forms to draw on; different disciplines have own processes and change is hard • Meeting discharge summary timelines challenges historical practices, i.e. blocking out admin time • Data collection – input into IPM but can’t get reports out, so lack evidence/feedback; file audits are very time consuming

9. West Gippsland Healthcare Group Assessment Feedback and Discharge Summary • Next Steps • Re-audit practice in June 2014 • Development of standardised care plan to be provided to • both the client and the GP • Regular audit cycle to be implemented for process control • and to seek opportunities for continuous improvement • Roll out to other specialist clinics by end of 2014 • West Gippsland Healthcare Group is on track to aligning with the Access Policy by 1 July 2015