Feasibility study on the use of the patient activation measure (PAM) to improve quality of care for patients with chronic conditions in South Eastern Sydney Local Health District

Project Number
PS41429

Project Status
Completed

Chief Investigators
A/Prof Ben Harris-Roxas , Prof Mark Harris, Ms Rachael Kearns, A/Prof Sarah Dennis, Tom Chapman SESLHD

Project Rationale

One priority within the SESLHD Integrated Care Strategy is “to engage with people and communities.” One of the two actions under this priority area is “to test use of patient activation, outcome, experience measures and sharing of outcomes across all providers as a tool to improve quality of care.”  There are a number of activities using the patient activation measure (PAM) that have already been undertaken in SESLHD. These have included the use of the PAM to measure patient engagement and as a pre and post measure of rehabilitation and self-management programs. The findings from this project will be used to design a program of work to increase the use of PAM across SESLHD with the purpose of improving the quality of care provided to patients with chronic conditions.

Project Aims

This project has three aims which reflect three major groups of activities to be conducted within this project. These aims are to:

  1. Conduct a scoping literature review on the use of PAM to improve quality of care. (completed)
  2. Investigate current use of PAM in SESLHD. (completed)
  3. Develop and test a pilot intervention that uses the PAM tool and results as part of clinical practice to improve the quality of care for patients with chronic conditions in SESLHD.

Activities conducted to achieve aims 1 and 2 will be used to inform the development of the pilot intervention for implementation as part of the third project aim.

Project Design and Method

The design of this project includes three major groups of activities which are based on the project aims.

Scoping literature review on how the PAM is used in clinical settings for adults with chronic conditions; the enablers and barriers to the implementation of PAM assessment and results; and impact.

Investigating the current use of PAM in SESLHD: A retrospective audit of pulmonary rehabilitation records of 194 patients who have attended the pulmonary rehabilitation clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital. Measures include pre and post PAM scores and a number of outcome measures including the 6 minute walk test and lung function.

Exploratory intervention study: Implementing the PAM as a tool to support better tailoring and quality of care with three sites implementing the PAM as part of a Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) quality cycle of improvement. Pre and post intervention data will be collected to measure process and outcomes of the intervention.