This update comes after the Commonwealth Commission of Audit has reported and the May 2014 Federal budget has been handed down. However, we still won’t fully understand the implications for mental health and the private sector until the National Mental Health Commission’s Review of Mental Health Programs and Services is completed in November. In April, the PMHA Executive met with the Commission’s CEO David Butt to discuss the work of the PMHA and its Centralised Data Management Service (CDMS). We have since provided data from the CDMS for the Review.
Our other activities have been focused on the following areas.
PMHA’s Patient Experiences of Care Measure
During the 2011–13 PMHA Quality Improvement Project (QIP), a PMHA Patient Experiences of Care Measure (PEx) for both overnight inpatient care and ambulatory care was developed. Implementation by our participating private psychiatric hospitals coincided with the release of the latest version of the CDMS Hospitals Standardised Measures database (HSMdb) software in late 2013. Hospitals were provided with the new PEx Survey templates, a detailed PEx Implementation Guide, and the updated HSMdb database application.
At the start of QIP, we weren’t sure how the additional burden of an experience of care measure would be received when our participating hospitals were already collecting two other clinical outcomes measures (the HoNOS and MHQ14). However, in the very first quarter of data submitted (Oct-Dec 2013) we had 15 hospitals collecting the PEx survey. In addition, in just this first quarter of implementation, these hospitals have managed to collect 1,798 Surveys.
This has been an outstanding result and we have sincerely congratulated and thanked our private hospitals for participating in what is yet another milestone for the private mental health sector. Our CDMS has now begun reporting PMHA–PEx statistics back to Hospitals within their Standard Quarterly Reports.
PMHA Principles Webinar
Late last year, we released our Principles for Collaboration, Communication and Cooperation between Private Mental Health Service Providers. To assist in their promotion, the Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN) dedicated its thirtieth webinar to the Principles. Held on 25 March this year, the webinar ran for 75 minutes and had an interdisciplinary focus on collaborating to optimise the support provided to a young woman (Cassie) as she utilised a range of mental health services. The webinar highlighted ways practitioners from different mental health disciplines can work effectively together to deliver an improved service. Panelists included:
1. Ms Janne McMahon (South Australian based consumer advocate)
2. Dr Caroline Johnson (Victorian based GP)
3. Dr Louisa Hoey (Victorian based clinical psychologist)
4. Dr Bill Pring (Victorian based psychiatrist)
5. Dr Mary Emeleus (Queensland based GP) will facilitated the panel discussion.
MHPN received 1,138 registrations and 433 of those logged in over the course of the live webinar. In March, there were a further 90 plays of the recording and another 80 in April bringing the tally to 603. MHPN anticipate this number will continue to grow into the future and the webinar is now part of the MHPN Webinar Library. You can view it at: http://www.mhpn.org.au/webinars
Guidelines for Determining Benefits for Health Insurance Purposes for Private Health Carer Report 2011–13
Having completed our work on the Principles, the PMHA’s Collaborative Care Models Working Group is now reviewing of the 2012 Edition of the Guidelines for Determining Benefits for Health Insurance Purposes for Private Mental Health Care (Guidelines). The Guidelines are primarily intended to provide guidance for hospitals and health insurers in determining health insurance benefits for private patient hospital–based mental health care. We are aiming to complete the review by the end of the year.
Welcome Maitland Private Hospital
This May, we warmly welcomed Maitland Private Hospital in New South Wales and its 24 bed mental health unit. Maitland Private joins the other 61 private psyachiatreic facilitaies across Australia who are participating in the work of the PMHA, its CDMS and the Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network.
Change in representation
As Professor Jeff Looi mentioned in his Editorial, our longstanding representative for the AMA, Dr Choong-Siew Yong, has completed his term of office and been replaced by Jeff on the PMHA. We welcome Jeff and extend our sincere thanks to Choong-Siew for his committed support for our work in the private mental health sector.