Learning from four years of collaborative access work in Australia

Area of Science:

• Primary Care Improvement
• Health Service Delivery
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• The Australian Primary Care Collaborative underwent significant adaptation of UK-based access improvement strategies over three years.
• This involved modifications to suit the Australian healthcare environment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe adaptations made during the first phase of the Australian Primary Care Collaborative focused on improving primary care access.
• To offer considerations for future primary care access improvement initiatives.

Main Methods:

• Retained 'third available appointment' as a delay metric.
• Revised patient satisfaction surveys and introduced an unmet demand measure.
• Developed 'team principles' to enhance practice capacity for improvement.
• Renamed the initiative from 'Better Access' to 'Access and Care Redesign'.
• Restructured content into 'foundation work' and 'pathway' components.

Main Results:

• The study details changes implemented in four key areas: team development, naming conventions, and content structure.
• Specific metrics like appointment delay and patient satisfaction were tracked.
• The renaming to 'Access and Care Redesign' aimed to overcome perceived barriers.

Conclusions:

• Four potential changes are proposed for those undertaking primary care access improvement work with general practices.
• These recommendations are based on lessons learned from the Australian Primary Care Collaborative's initial phase.