Around 63 per cent of general practices in Australia employ at least one nurse, and there are approximately 14,000 nurses who work in general practice.
Nurses are playing an increasingly crucial role in primary health care. Their skills are increasingly in demand to maintain the quality and the continuity of care to the patients.
The new PIP QI incentive program that was introduced by the government on August 1st encourages general practices to participate in continuous quality improvement and provide PIP Eligible data sets to the local PHN. General practices who are successful in fulfilling the PIP QI incentives are entitled to receive financial support from the government, which can total to approximately $12,500 per quarter.
“The practices have to choose four quality assurance projects a year, which can be based on the improvement measured reported to the PHN, or the projects can be something individual that’s important to your local community – maybe you have a lot of refugees, so you’re going to choose something to support them. But certainly, you can choose immunisation, such as trying to increase the number of people with diabetes and COPD who are immunised against influenza,” said Nurse Immuniser, Tracy Murphy.
Disclaimer: This article was provided by University of Melbourne. While every effort has been made to ensure the information is accurate, North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network does not warrant or represent the accuracy, currency and completeness of any information or material included within.
