May 2021 edition
The NSW Health approach to value based healthcare involves scaling and embedding statewide programs and supporting change through system‑wide enablers to deliver outcomes and experiences that matter to patients and providers.
NSW Health is in a strong position to ensure data and information is available to inform decisions. Building on work done to‑date, we have developed tools that give us the knowledge and subject matter expertise to undertake monitoring and evaluation in a complex health environment.
These tools include new data collections and linked data sets. The advances we have made with linked data through our Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL) allow us to tell the complete story of an initiative. For example, the Lumos project is a first of a kind in Australia that links hospital and primary care data from over 400 general practices across the state, providing a system‑wide dataset.
A defining part of value based healthcare is maximising outcomes from the patient’s perspective. The Health Outcomes and Patient Experience (HOPE) system, which is now live, supports the collection of patient‑reported outcomes and experiences in real‑time. This system gives patients more of a voice in their care and supports clinicians to work with patients to set meaningful goals for their care. HOPE also enables the Health system to improve clinical practice, patient experiences and drive system‑wide improvements.
Enabling measurement and evaluation of VBHC through the availability and accessibility of data is a priority for me. The importance of sharing data and its multi‑purpose use has been reinforced by our experience over the past 12 months. I plan to use my role and its responsibilities to support collaboration across the organisation and drive the critical role of measurement and evaluation in the delivery of value for our health system.