Complete
This was a scaling project supported by the Better Care Victoria Innovation Fund.
Lead organisations
- Austin Health
- NPS MedicineWise
Partners
- Albury Wodonga Health
- Ballarat Health Services
- Goulburn Valley Health
- Latrobe Regional Hospital
- Monash Health
- Northern Health
- Peninsula Health
- St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
- Swan Hill Health
- The Royal Children’s Hospital
- Western Health
Summary
Launched in 2015, Choosing Wisely Australia seeks to improve the quality of healthcare by starting a conversation about tests, treatments and procedures where evidence shows they provide no benefit or, in some case, lead to harm.
In 2016–17, the Better Care Victoria Innovation Fund supported Austin Health to become a Choosing Wisely champion hospital, and the health service was able to achieve statistically significant reductions in the volumes of unnecessary coagulation studies and urine cultures being ordered. Auditing of test indications also showed that more orders were being made in line with clinical recommendations.
The 2017–19 Choosing Wisely scaling collaboration brought together 11 health services interested in becoming Choosing Wisely champion hospitals. The project provided them with the tools and support to identify low value care practices and implement strategies to reduce them.
Trial outcomes
The 2016–17 Choosing Wisely champion hospital project resulted in a 38 per cent reduction in coagulation studies ordered per patient and a 29 per cent reduction in urine tests ordered per patient. These reductions represented cost savings of $190,000 and $460,000, respectively.
Aims
- Establish a sustainable framework to measure low value care and the impact of interventions designed to reduce low value care practices
- Decrease the proportion of low value care practices delivered in health services by reducing unnecessary requesting of tests, treatments and procedures
Outcomes
- Avoided 6,401 low value care practices
- Saved more than $363,100 based on avoided low value care practices
- Surveyed 1,271 clinicians and 443 consumers on their views, barriers and enablers towards Choosing Wisely
- Developed a Choosing Wisely implementation toolkit as a national resource
- Ten additional Victorian health services joined the national Choosing Wisely Champion Hospital Network, making Victoria the most represented state in the network