Lessons from high performing general practices — YRD
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Lessons from high performing general practices (433)

Amr Abou Elnour 1 , Andrea Hernan 1 , Christine Walker 2 , Julie Johnson 3 , Jeffrey Fuller 4 , James Dunbar 1
  1. GGT UDRH Flinders and Deakin Universities, Warrnambool, VIC, Australia
  2. Chronic Illness Alliance, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. The Centre for Clinical Governance Research , The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  4. Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Introduction: General practice is the front-line unit of the healthcare system. Safe and high quality practice has been a focus of research since the release of Err is Human, Crossing the Quality Chasm and An Organisation with a memory. The main aim of this study is to identify the characteristics of high performing Australian general practices.

Method: A sample of high performing Australian general practices was selected according to three criteria: a) performance in Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL) and Australian Primary Care Collaborative (APCC) Program databases, b) national award winners, c) nomination by experts. Semi-structured face to face interviews were undertaken. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed.

 Results: We conducted interviews in 14 practices in NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and TAS. Forty participants took part in interviews: 13 general practitioners, 14 practice managers, 12 practices nurses and 1 community pharmacist. The characteristics of these practices varied by size, accreditation, awards and involvement in teaching and research. The main themes which emerged are team dynamics, APCC Program participation, accreditation, practice nurse role, patient safety, IT, patient involvement, leadership and culture. Also, participants identified areas need improvement such as Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) and the rolling of Medicare Locals.

Conclusion: We identified the characteristics of high performing Australian general practices. Most of them are related to improvement in quality and patient safety. Most of the participants agreed that these characteristics are feasible for generalisation among Australian general practices.