Quality Improvement

The PHN has collaborated with specialist DFV workers and general practitioners to develop several PDSAs to support your practice to implement training, processes, and referral pathways.

Talk to your PCIO or DFV Local Link for additional support in implementing these PDSAs or other strategies to ensure your practice is best placed to support patients impacted by DFV.

Practice Readiness

To ensure patients affected by DFV receive primary healthcare matched to their needs, systems are required for identification and support. There are often missed opportunities for the prevention and identification of patients affected by DFV. Where preventative opportunities are missed, this leads to a higher rate of DFV which in turn increases health costs. The below Readiness Checklist is designed as a starting point to identify areas fulfilled and generate ideas that may be applied to a quality improvement (QI) activity.

Awareness and Education

Improve awareness and education around DFV for patients and staff.

Measures:

• Identification of practice staff limitations in knowledge, procedure, and experience
• Increase in numbers of patients disclosing DFV to practice staff
• Practice staff engage in targeted professional development
• Practice staff identify professional development as effective in addressing gap
• Practice procedures adapted to reflect changes in screening
  

Data, Action Plan and Referral

Improve the identification and care of patients experiencing DFV.

Measures:

• Increase the identification of patients at risk through coding of presentations within clinical software
• Increase the number of DFV action plans for patients identified to be at risk