How to interpret a PCOC Report Reading the PCOC Report Your report is a reflection of the patient care and outcomes which were provided over the preceding six month period. The information contained within your PCOC report is separated into 4 sections: Section 1 Summary of Data table • Patient numbers inform you of the service size and the volumes of patients seen in either inpatient or ambulatory/community settings over the 6 month period • Number of phase changes reflects individual service’s understanding of the assessment tools • Difference between the number of patients and the number of episodes reflects multiple admissions to the service • Average number of phases per episode informs you of the number of phase assessments from start to end of each episode. It is helpful to look at the average length of episode to determine if this average is reflective. It is also important to note that patient outcomes are measured at phase change Data Item Completion • If your service meets the benchmark but item completion levels are low, then the benchmark measure results are not an actual service picture • In some cases some data items are not required to be completed. For example, place of death is only required for non-admitted patients who have died Section 2 Benchmark Summary • The summary will show which of the benchmarks your service has met and also includes your service score • Look for trends - increases or decreases over time (eg. Changes in personnel may impact on these trends) • The national profile graphs below allow your service to see how you are performing in comparison to other palliative care services participating in PCOC. Your service is highlighted as a dot on the graph. If no dot is present on a particular graph, this means that your service has not met the criteria for inclusion in this measure. This may be caused by insufficient data item completion, or your service not having any data falling into a particular category, for example, no phases starting with moderate/severe SAS pain. The red line on the graph indicates the benchmark for that measure Sept 2012 Section 3 Outcome Measures In this section you will find detailed information on each of the outcome measures as summarised in the previous section. The graphs and charts are useful in understanding each of the outcome measures and reasons why your service either met or didn’t meet the benchmark target. Section 4 This section contains information on three levels – patient, episode and phase. This information can assist with service planning and also provides a context to the patient outcomes presented in the previous section. Profile of Palliative Care Patients • The broad detail is found at the patient level, this information provides an overview of patient demographics Profile of Palliative Care Episodes • Information at the episode level informs your service about the setting or location of where palliative care is provided and describes reasons behind why and how palliative care episodes start and end, the level of support patients receive both before and after an episode and (where applicable) the setting in which the patient died Profile of Palliative Care Phases • This information describes the patient’s stage of illness, functional status, levels of pain and other symptoms. • Low levels of patient phase changes may be indicative of a misunderstanding of phase change or lack of appropriate documentation of phase change (eg. progression from stable phase to death) Contact PCOC If when reading your report you have identified any areas for possible improvement, please contact your PCOC Quality Improvement Facilitator: • • • • • NSW & ACT - Jane Connolly [email protected] mob. 0420 883 110 and Gaye Bishop [email protected] mob. 0417487020 VIC & TAS – Bernadette Sheehy [email protected] mob. 0408 592 248 QLD – Kerri-Ann Stanton and Claire Kelly mob. 0432 756 875 [email protected] SA & NT – Janet Taylor [email protected] mob. 0400 288 819 WA - Tanya Pidgeon [email protected] mob. 0467 720 453 For more information, you can also visit the PCOC website www.pcoc.org.au PCOC is funded under the National Palliative Care Program and is supported by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing Sept 2012