Health System Integration and Primary Health Care Development
Description and aims
This stream is focused on the role of primary health care in improving health and social care integration. Integration is approached at a number of levels and perspectives with the ultimate objectives of improving health and well being, service user experience and system efficiency/effectiveness.
Key current research areas
Primary Health Care System Development
PHC System Development is concerned with the development of organisations, systems, capacity and frameworks needed for a strong Primary Health Care system. This includes the organisational structures including LHDs, PHNs, and emerging Australian models of Patient Centred Medical Homes and Neighbourhood
Improving integration of services and continuity of care
Improving Integration is concerned with the way that different parts of health and related systems work together to provide comprehensive and well-coordinated primary health care. This includes integration within primary health care and with other sectors, including hospitals.
Access to Primary Health Care
Access to PHC is concerned with patterns of access to quality Primary Health Care. This work includes studies of access to primary health care for people with diabetes, using data from population health surveys and linking records from hospital and other data sets.
Key partners
Partnerships and working together at individual and organisational levels are central to improved integration. Our key partners are consumer and health professional representative organisations, PHNs, LHDs, community organisations and related sectors such as local government, education, employment etc.
Stream lead
Margo Barr leads this stream.
Completed
Projects
Developing performance indicators for Primary and Community Health services
NSW Health is seeking to develop performance indicators to support implementation of its Primary and Community Health Policy.
Divisions and Hospitals Integration Program
This project followed on from a national forum on GP-hospital integration run by CGPIS in 1997. It complemented the National Demonstration Hospitals Program phase 3, which was addressing the relationship between GPs and hospitals from a hospital perspective.
Equity of access to and use of quality primary health care for people with diabetes: A secondary analysis of the AusDiab survey
This research is exploring the use of the AusDiab data to provide information on access to and use of quality PHC for diabetes care.
Evaluating access to and use of Primary Health Care: What does the 2002/03 NSW Health survey contribute?
This study examined the extent to which data collected within the 2002 and 2003 NSW population survey Health Surveys provided information on the patterns of access to and use of quality primary care for participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Evaluating the impact of GP Hospital Liaison Officers in Australia
This project followed the national forum on GP-hospital integration in 1997 and the Divisions and Hospitals Integration Program. It was a response by DoHA to the emerging role of GPLOs and a wish to understand better their role and contribution to GP-hospital integration and how a network to support their work might be set up.