Bulletin - March, 2021

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Bulletin - March, 2021

Lachlan Stockbridge • March 1, 2021

Accreditation - First Steps

March sees CSMP take a number of steps to renew our accreditation for the triennium:

Starting Tues, 2nd March, the patient feedback survey will be distributed to canvass patients' opinions and experiences in order to help us deliver better quality of care, as well review how our policies and practice affect things such as access and continuity of care. Unlike previous years, the survey can now be completed online with multiple language options available, as well as in hard copy.
Submission of Accreditation Documents: you can click on the image above (or HERE) to submit yours - the process is reasonably straightforward, but if you need a hand, let me know! I'm hoping to have collected ALL the required documents by Friday, 12th March.

COVID and FLU Clinics - Where are we up to...

At this stage, the PHNs (who are liaising with DHHS) have informed us that they HAVE our EOI - unfortunately, this doesn't give us any more useful information regarding when, how or what our role in the COVID vaccination rollout will be.

Our clinic model would be as follows:

Patients booking for COVID vaccines would receive a modified screening link that would ask for additional info (i.e. allergies, current medications, etc.).
This info would then be imported into their BP file to produce a 'checklist/consent form' that is printed and issued to the patient on arrival for their appointment, which would include a field for 'time at vaccination' and fields for signature by supervising practitioner and patient.
The patient would be brought into consult in either Room 106 or 112 (both rooms have two points of entrance and egress), where the checklist would be confirmed by either the supervising doctor or nurse while the vaccine is drawn.
The vaccine would be administered, the time recorded on the patient's consent form and the patient exited to the 280 courtyard (which would be cordoned off for vaccinated patients to be monitored by nursing staff.
At the conclusion of their observation period, the patient presents their checklist/consent form, and is free to depart via the rear gate at 280.

However, for this model to allow maximum rotation and minimise loss of income for practitioners given the current funding model, volunteers are still required. The plan is to volunteer a maximum of FOUR (4) possible sessions from your existing work days to allow maximum rotation (with the aim being for 1 session to be used per doctor per fortnight) to service the 2 clinic rooms.

If you're yet to volunteer, please do so by clicking on the button below:

Volunteer for Flu/COVID Clinic

At the same time, we have opened flu vaccine pre-orders for patients to plan ahead for the coming flu season. Please feel free to encourage your patients to pre-register so we can be as organised as possible!

Proposed Fee Changes...

The Doctors' Committee will be meeting next week to discuss raising Practice fees, following the decision to freeze such an increase last year due to COVID.

The increase would be nominal, but would be as follows:

Item	Current	Proposed
3	$40	$40
23	$78	$80
36	$116	$120
44	$155	$160

While slight, the proposed increase would bring us further into line with other practices in the surrounding area. If you've not done so, please contact either Anna Connellan or other members of the Doctors' Committee should you wish to discuss the proposed fee changes!

TeleHealth - Reminder

As we've now passed 12 months of COVID, we are also approaching 12 months of Telehealth services. As per the MBS, patients that have not physically attended the practice in the last TWELVE months are ineligible for a Medicare rebate for telehealth services. DHHS' debt recovery and fraud department have indicated that they've noticed an increase in ineligible billings generally, so please check your patient's physical attendance if telehealth has been requested, and let admin staff know to contact them regarding the fees!