Womens Health Business Case Report

IMPLEMENTATION CASE

4.1 Outcomes Framework

4.1.1 Collaborative Work with the Ministry of Health

KEY MESSAGES • NSW Health’s Commissioning for Better Value approach aims to shift the focus in health care from outputs to outcomes. • The Women’s Health sector recognises that consistent assessment of improvements in health outcomes is critical to demonstrating effectiveness and the ongoing value of services. • Women’s Health Centres participated in a collaborative effort with the Ministry of Health to develop a standard outcome and reporting framework. • Consistent roll out of this standard reporting framework across LHDs was hampered by the onset of COVID and, due to the nature of the core services provided and the resource limitations on current data capture in WHCs, and the performance indicators proposed were predominately output indicators. • Despite COVID disruptions, the sector has made some progress in implementing both validated and non-validated tools to improve outcomes measurement. • As part of implementing the increased investment outlined in this business case, Women’s Health Centres propose a new outcomes framework focusing on key presenting health issues, and standardised outcomes measurement tools. • The proposed framework builds on previous collaborative work with the Ministry of Health • Sector-wide roll out of the standard outcomes framework would be led and supported by the peak body, Women’s Health NSW.

The 2017 Mapping Project of Women’s Health Centres recommended that the Ministry of Health, Local Health Districts andWomen’s Health Centres developmechanisms for systematic and standard reporting for the Women’s Health Program. Women’s Health NSW worked collaboratively with Ministry of Health and LHD representatives to form a Working Group to progress this outcomes work. The Ministry engaged an external consultant (Improvement Foundation) to develop a collection of performance indicators and an accompanying data dictionary that reflects the core services delivered by Women’s Health Centres. As part of this project, the consultant reviewed the current LHD reporting requirements for WHCs and found considerable variation across LHD reporting requirements. A standard set of indicators was proposed to provide a consistent approach to capturing the core services, while still giving adequate information to LHDs. Consistent roll out of this standard reporting framework across LHDs was hampered by the onset of COVID and, due to the nature of the core services provided and the resource limitations on current data capture in Women’s Health Centres, the performance indicators proposed were predominately output indicators. Collaborative work with the Ministry of Health on development of a consistent outcomes framework for the Women’s Health Program is expected to recommence in 2023.

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Women’s Health NSW – October 2022