Funding and data for palliative care

Policy and funding guidelines

Victoria's health policy and funding guidelines articulate the performance and financial framework within which state government funded health sector entities operate.

Areas of interest to palliative care providers

• Expectations, policy and performance: Palliative Care Services (Section 3.2.1.7)
• End of Life Care and Advance Care Planning (Section 1.6.9.7)
• Palliative Care Clinical Network (Section 1.6.1.1)
• Subacute inpatient services - Palliative Care (Section 2.3.2.3)
• Subacute non-admitted - Palliative Care (Section 2.4.1)
• Palliative Care Consultancy Services (Section 2.4.4)
• Day Hospice (Section 2.4.5)

Data reporting

• VAED (Section 1.9.2.1 & 3.12.2.2)
• AIMS (Section 1.9.2.2 & 3.12.2.6)
• VINAH (Section 1.9.2.5 & 3.12.2.5)
• Contacts as the unit of count (Section 2.4.1.1)
• Reporting on activity (Section 2.4.1.2)

Funding policy and pricing

• Specified grant consolidation (Section 1.8.3)
• Victorian funding recall policy (Section 2.17.1)
• Funding for throughout above target (Section 2.17.2)
• Compensable patients (Section 2.18.3)
• Calculating funding recall (Appendix 2.5)
• Peer groups (Section 2.19)
• Price tables Acute and Subacute (Section 2.41)
• Admitted subacute weighted day bed targets 2015-16 (Section 4.2.3)

Victorian Integrated Non-Admitted Health Minimum Dataset

The Victorian Integrated Non-Admitted Health (VINAH) minimum dataset collects data on the provision of a range of non-admitted services in Victoria. The data is used to provide funding to public hospitals and to support health services' planning, policy formulation and epidemiological research. The dataset enables the department to meet its State and Commonwealth accountability obligations.

Two palliative care programs report data through VINAH: community palliative care, and palliative care consultancy teams.

A community palliative care VINAH extended guide for use has been developed. This document should be read in conjunction with the VINAH manual.

Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset

The Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED) collects data on all admitted patients from Victorian public and private hospitals. VAED data are used for health services planning, policy formulation, case-mix funding and epidemiological research.

Palliative care inpatients are identified by the use of care type 8 in the Care Type field.

Agency Information Management System

The Agency Information Management System (AIMS) collects summarised financial and statistical data. AIMS data is used to assist monitoring of programs for funding purposes, in demand management and for acquittal purposes.

Statewide palliative care services and community palliative care services report AIMS data.

Clinical Indicators for Pain (CLiP)

CLiP is a quality improvement activity to ensure people's pain and symptoms are managed using quality interventions.

Services are to complete a retrospective review of people who attended the service. Data for admitted (identified by the use of care type 8) and non-admitted (community) palliative care clients/patients is to be reported.

The data will be used to generate results for six process indicators. These indicators are based on the work of the Palliative Care Clinical Network.

The data collection supports monitoring in line with Victoria's end of life and palliative care framework 2016.

Palliative care client and carer experience survey

The palliative care experience survey will collect, analyse and report the experience of people accessing Victoria's admitted and non-admitted (community) designated specialist palliative care services.

The survey provides clients and carers with an avenue to voice their feedback and improve the quality and safety of the health care they receive. This feedback will enable participating palliative care services to reflect on and improve their services.

The inaugural annual survey is underway from mid August through to mid November 2018.

Palliative Care Resource Allocation Model (PCRAM)

The PCRAM is a model for distributing growth funding to Victorian community palliative care services. The PCRAM is designed to be equitable and transparent as well as simple to calculate, implement and explain.

The development of the PCRAM was one of the action areas for the Department of Human Services (‘the department’) arising from ‘Strengthening Palliative Care: a policy for health and community care providers 2004 – 09’.

PCRAM Factors

The PCRAM uses the base population figure for the service catchment area using Local Government Areas (LGA’s) and applies three factors:

•Proportion of the population in the catchment area aged 70 plus
•Socio economic status of the population of the catchment area
•Rurality of the catchment area

The factors included in the PCRAM are those that are known to impact on an individual’s (and therefore a population’s) need for palliative care services.

The PCRAM aims to be a ‘best fit’ of major influencing factors rather than a definitive list of all factors which may have some influence on the need for palliative care services. The factors incorporated into the PCRAM represent key areas of influence. Modelling of the PCRAM suggests the inclusion of additional factors is likely to create overlap and inaccuracies in the formula.

The PCRAM has been updated to include 2017 population data.

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