Using Data to Improve the Quality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Assessments

Just over a week ago, the manager of Nidjalla Waangan Mia, Kerry presented a poster at the Rural Health West 2021 Aboriginal Health Conference.
 
The conference centred around tackling topics such as high rates of chronic disease, mental health and well-being and discussing initiatives which would address these issues.

Nidjalla Waangan Mia presented a poster on how integration of data led to improving the number of Aboriginal Health Assessments. 
Utilising the PDSA Model – Plan, Do, Study, Act – the team at Nidjalla was able to increase checks from 5 per month to 35.  With tweaks to process flow, staffing and then repeating the cycle over and over again, the team were able to achieve this remarkable change.

The data was able to demonstrate where problems lay and enabled the team to make necessary changes which eventually led to improving the health check rate.  Data isn’t always about numbers, people – both clients and staff play a huge part. 
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“Quality improvement is continual – our data has shown when we don’t have this as a focus, quality can suffer.”