What is QUEST PHC about?
High quality Primary Health Care (PHC) is key to containing spiralling health costs and providing equitable community-based care in Australia. Additionally, inequitable health outcomes impact on populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations and those in prison. In Australia, PHC is delivered in settings including general practices, community health centres, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and allied health practices. High quality care is not always achieved.
Currently Australia is amongst those OECD countries with the highest proportion of PHC funding as fee-for-service payments (90%), and there is no agreement on what constitutes high quality PHC to guide alternative funding models. Hence there is a need for a validated Australian model of quality PHC.
In partnership with WentWest (Western Sydney Primary Health Network), QUEST PHC will work with Primary Health Networks, consumers and key stakeholders from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health and Prison Health sectors to develop Australia’s first evidence-based and professionally endorsed tool for measuring high quality care in general practice and to inform funding models that reward such care.
QUEST PHC will use a modified Delphi approach with eight PHNs (Primary Health Networks) across Australia to review and revise a suite of evidence-based indicators and measures developed based on our review of the literature and consultations with key stakeholders. We will be identifying patient-reported measures (PRMs) that would be suitable for use in Australian setting and conducting focus groups to investigate consumer perspectives on these PRMs and high quality Australian general practice. Focus groups will also be conducted with leaders in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services setting and those within the prison health environment and forensic mental health network to discuss the applicability of our research for those working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and prison health.
How will QUEST PHC contribute to improving primary health care?
QUEST PHC will build on current national PHC data and analytical capabilities and provide support for the use of the tool to improve care in general practices and for appropriate remuneration of high quality PHC in Australian general practice, assisting in curtailing rising healthcare costs.
It will be critical as part of this process to engage consumers in development of appropriate patient-reported Measures of outcomes and experience, potentially enabling consumers to make informed decisions regarding general practice services based on evidence-based measures of quality.
The Research Team
Chief Investigators:
- Prof. Jenny Reath
- Dr. Phyllis Lau
- Prof. Andrew Page
- Prof. Penelope Abbott
- Dr. Steven Trankle
- Dr. Kathy Tannous
- A/Prof. Kath Peters
- Prof. Tim Usherwood (Sydney University)
- Dr Natalie Cochrane
Research Assistant: Samantha Ryan
Research Partners
- Digital Health CRC
- WentWest Ltd
- WA Primary Health Alliance Ltd
- Nepean Blue Mountains PHN
- South West Sydney Primary Health Network Ltd
- Melbourne Primary Care Network Ltd
- Western NSW PHN
- Brisbane North PHN
- Central and Eastern Sydney PHN
Publications
Metusela Christine, Cochrane Natalie, van Werven Hannah, Usherwood Tim, Ferdousi Shahana, Messom Ray, O'Halloran Diana, Fasher Michael, Page Andrew, Trankle Steven, Abbott Penelope, Tannous W. Kathy, Peters Kath, Meisinger Kirsten, Reath Jennifer (2022) Developing indicators and measures of high-quality for Australian general practice. Australian Journal of Primary Health , -https://www.publish.csiro.au/PY/PY21164
Lau P, Ryan S, Abbott P, Tannous K, Trankle S, et al. (2022) Protocol for a Delphi consensus study to select indicators of high-quality general practice to achieve Quality Equity and Systems Transformation in Primary Health Care (QUEST-PHC) in Australia. PLOS ONE 17(5): e0268096. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268096
Media Press
Western Sydney University
The Medical Republic
Links and Resources
A PowerPoint presentation on the QUEST PHC project presented by Dr. Phyllis Lau at the School of Medicine seminar in December 2021.
A PowerPoint presentation entailing the work carried out in partnership with WentWest in the development of an evidence-based suite of indicators and measures of high quality Australian general practice.
A PowerPoint presentation outlining the work that will be carried out in partnership with our partner PHNs to achieve consensus in the final development of a comprehensive tool that will measure high quality general practice in Australia.
Quality, Equity and Systems Transformation in Primary Health Care (QUEST PHC): Project Report.
The QUEST PHC team has provided responses to external consultations on:
Project Milestones
- Ethics approval obtained from Western Sydney University Human Research Ethics Committee – 16 July 2021
Contact
Please contact Dr Phyllis Lau at phyllis.lau@westernsydney.edu.au for further information about the QUEST PHC project.
