Chelsea Menchin1
1Palliative Care Australia, Griffith, Australia
Biography:
With more than 25 years’ experience working in health policy and project management, Chelsea has contributed to range of national programs and reform processes in primary care, chronic disease management and mental health.
In her role as National Projects Manager at Palliative Care Australia, Chelsea leads the development and implementation of projects and collaborations that improve awareness of, access to and quality of palliative care for all who need it. This work includes oversight of the Quality Improvement Suite of Resources for specialist and primary palliative care services, and the National Register for Palliative Care Consumers and Carers.
Abstract:
Background: Palliative Care Australia has been developing standards for more than 15 years to support the specialist palliative care sector to deliver high quality palliative care. A limited scope review conducted in 2023, led to two updates of the Quality Improvement Suite:
the introduction of the National Palliative Care Standards 5.1 ed. (2024) and
a series of downloadable packs that support self- assessment against the revised Standards for clinical and service leadership teams.
Aims: The presenter aims to share with the audience the updates to the National Palliative Care Standards and how these were determined.
Methods: Utilising the newly launched PaCSA Packs (for self-assessment), the presenter will focus on the evidence collection that can be harnessed through this process to contribute to mandatory accreditation processes with the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, and, where relevant, the new Aged Care Standards.
Results: Participants will be able to engage with the new National Palliative Care Standards 5.1 ed. (for the specialist palliative care sector) in new and more meaningful ways. The self-assessment tools have been simplified to enable practical, timely responses to continuous quality improvement efforts, within the clinical setting and for professional development and service improvement innovations.
Conclusions: Continuous Quality Improvement, while a must within the health system, is often required to be addressed in clinical hours. PCA has listened to the needs of the sector and has established a program that fits within a variety of team or sole clinician settings, and has all the congruencies between other Standards and Frameworks mapped for you, to assist services to meet their QI requirements both within and outside the palliative care specialisation.