Orientating Nurses to General Practice - General Practice Queensland

Other Key Duties:The Enhanced Primary Care Package (EPC)The Enhanced Primary Care incentive package was launched by the FederalGovernment in the 1999-2000 budgets. The goal of this package is toimprove the health and quality of life for older Australians and people withchronic conditions and multi-disciplinary complex care needs, throughenhancing the quality of primary health care. The major elements of thispackage are Health Assessments, Care Plans and Case Conferences.From 1 July 2005, new Chronic Disease Management (CDM) items in the MBSwere introduced to make it easier for GPs to manage the health care ofpatients with chronic medical conditions, including those patients who needmultidisciplinary care. For the first time, GPs have access to Medicare rebatesfor preparing and reviewing GP management plans for patients with chronicmedical conditions. For patients requiring multidisciplinary care, GPs can alsoclaim from Medicare for coordinating team care planning and review services.The CDM items apply to the treatment of people with asthma, cancer,arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness and other chronic conditions.The new items replace the existing EPC care plans, which are phased out andwithdrawn from 1 November 2005.֠TIPTwo useful websites to refer to for EPC are the RACGP site athttp://www.racgp.org.au and the Department of Health and Ageing athttp://www.health.gov.au/epc/HEALTH ASSESSMENTSAnnual Health Assessments are for people aged 75 years and over (55 yearsand over for people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent).The Practice Nurse role may include the following:• Implement and maintain a systematic approach towards thisinitiative, including promotion and an active recall and remindersystem• Collect mandatory information and record• Refer to appropriate service providers as requested and agreed toby the GP and the patientHealth Assessments can be conducted in the practice, in the patient’s home,or a combination of both. GPs can engage the services of the Practice Nurseto collect some of the information or to conduct the Home HealthAssessment.21