EMAIL to QIRG Phase II Members (For DSS Review)

EMAIL to QIRG Phase II Members (For DSS review)

16 January 2014

Dear QI Phase II Reference Group Member,

Thank you for agreeing to be a member of the Quality Indicators Reference Group for Phase II. As you’ll recall from our last meeting of Phase I in November 2014, the next six months is jam packed with activities for Quality Indicators.

Deed of Appointment

The Department is working through its processes to formally appoint you to the group and you should be receiving correspondence from them relating to your appointment in the coming weeks. Included with your letter of appointment will be a confidentiality agreement for the next phase of the group.

First meeting

We’re proposing our first meeting of the group will be a teleconference to be held on Wednesday 11 February between 10am – 12pm AEDST. Could you please let Leanne Lovell know by email if you are able to attend – AP.

The meeting will adopt the new terms of reference, elect a new chair of the group and will discuss items in advance of the March Workshop (see below).

Post NACA Meeting Outcomes

At the November reference group meeting followed by the November NACA meeting, NACA members raised two concerns with the proposed QI approach directly with the Department.

The first was that NACA felt the timeframes for the proposed QI trial were too short to have effective engagement from the sector. I’m pleased to confirm the Minister has approved an extension in these timeframes and updated timelines will be presented by DSS at our first meeting.

The second issue was in relation to the proposed “quality of life / consumer experience” indicators that the Department indicated would be developed and trialled with the first three quality of care indicators. NACA raised concerns that the proposed approach focused too heavily on the ‘quality of life’ items and that there was not a clear plan of how consumer experience indicators would be considered in the initial phase/s.

The Department and NACA Secretariat have been discussing these issues and agree that the QIRG would benefit from increased clarity about what is meant by consumer experience and the types of indicators being proposed. Acknowledging that the proposed “quality of life / consumer experience” indicators are now designed to include both residential and home care settings, the Secretariat will draft a scoping paper on the issue based on the discussions of NACA’s QIs in Resi Care paper of January 2014. This paper will be discussed at our first meeting and will help shape the work of the March workshop.

March Workshop

The second meeting of the group will be a one day workshop in the second half of March. We’re finalising date options and hope to have them to you next week. This meeting will be to:

-Provide advice to KPMG on the QI Trial

-Discuss the development of “quality of life / consumer experience” indicators

-Discuss barriers and solutions to data collection for the trial

We’re looking forward to working with you on these important issues over the coming year. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact either of us on the details below.

Kind regards

Judy and Corey

NACA Secretariat – Aged Care Reform

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