Palliative Care and Residential Aged Care Facility Commissioning Project: Gold Coast PHN

Status: Completed March 2019

Client: Gold Coast PHN

Background

As identified by the Gold Coast Primary Health Network (GCPHN), the purpose of delivering the Palliative Care and Older People (with a focus on residential aged care facilities and after hours) Commissioning Project (The Project) was to: 

“… provide evidence-based information and undertake stakeholder engagement to inform the design and delivery of an agreed regionalised approach to GCPHN investment in palliative care and an after-hours response in relation to aged care…”

Approach

The following objectives were achieved as a result of The Project.

• Understand the respective palliative care and aged care patient journeys in respect to health and non-health related inhibitors, enablers and supports across a diversity of perspectives and life stages.

• Understand and articulate population needs across the GCPHN region, paying particular focus to the significant body of existing data analysis and stakeholder consultation already conducted and analysing newly identified qualitative and quantitative data to fill gaps in knowledge.

• Identify and improve organisational and sector knowledge relating to evidence-based models of care relating to both palliative care and aged care.

• Identify points of leverage in the policy environment at a national, state and regional level to maximise the impact of future palliative care and aged care investments.

• Identify points of leverage from relevant models of care identified by the Integrated Care Alliance Palliative Care Group.

• Understand and synthesise expert opinion relating to the overall need for palliative care and aged care services (where to target services), in addition to gaining sector agreement on the best path forward for investment across each sector.

• Summarise and articulate the findings so they are of maximum utility for GCPHN and the broader palliative care and aged care sectors.

• Outline relevant KPIs and program outcome measures to assist GCPHN to monitor the effectiveness of future commissioned services.

Outcomes

Below: common patient journeys, developed in partnership with Council of The Aging Queensland and Palliative Care Queensland. The patient pathways were developed in consultation with the local sector and community.