How to interpret a PCOC Report

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:
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NSW & ACT - Jane Connolly jconnoll@uow.edu.au mob. 0420 883 110 and Gaye Bishop
gbishop@uow.edu.au mob. 0417487020
VIC & TAS – Bernadette Sheehy bsheehy@uow.edu.au mob. 0408 592 248
QLD – Kerri-Ann Stanton and Claire Kelly mob. 0432 756 875 pcoc@qut.edu.au
SA & NT – Janet Taylor janet.taylor@flinders.edu.au mob. 0400 288 819
WA - Tanya Pidgeon tanya.pidgeon@uwa.edu.au 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