Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 2) (Cth)

Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 2)

I, BRENDAN MURPHY, delegate of the Minister for Health, make this declaration under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

Dated: 5^th March 2018   

Prof. Brendan Murphy

Chief Medical Officer      

Department of Health

Contents

PART 1           PRELIMINARY3

1            Name3

2.           Commencement3

3.           Authority3

4.           Repeal3

5.           Schedule   3

SCHEDULE    4

Part 1          Preliminary

1. Name

This Declaration is the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 2).

1. Commencement

This Declaration commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.

1. Authority

This Declaration is made under subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

1. Repeal

This Declaration is repealed at the end of 5 years after the date on which it was signed.

1. Schedule

The quality assurance activity described in the Schedule to this Declaration is declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.

Schedule – Declaration of quality assurance activity

1            Name of Activity

Tonsil, Grommet and Nasal Septum Surgery Registry

Description:

This quality assurance activity consists of the collection of sensitive pre‑operative and post‑operative data, through a web-based system, about three surgical operations: tonsillectomy, middle ear ventilation tube insertion (grommets) or nasal septum surgery. Data is collected through the use of four questionnaires: a pre-surgery questionnaire completed by the surgeon, a pre-surgery questionnaire completed by the patient, a short term outcome questionnaire completed by the patient approximately four weeks after surgery, and a medium term outcome questionnaire completed by the patient approximately six months after surgery.

The data collected relates to patient and surgeon details, indications for surgery, the surgery performed, surgical techniques used, and post-surgery patient outcomes.

The activity will be engaged in by the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Limited (ASOHNS). ASOHNS is the representative organisation for Ear, Nose and Throat Head and Neck surgeons in Australia.

The activity includes analysis of outcome data undertaken by a Data Sub‑Committee of ASOHNS comprising otolaryngology head and neck surgeons with the medical knowledge to make informed assessments of the data collected, as well as one member with expertise in statistics and data analysis.

Data collected through the activity will be compiled and analysed, with regular reports including information about benchmarks and outliers provided back to clinicians.

Individual surgeons will be able to review their own cases and assess their results through the outcomes reported by patients following surgery.

ASOHNS will publish an annual report on the Tonsil, Grommet and Nasal Septum Surgery Registry showing de-identified national information on surgical procedures with a focus on topics such as patient outcomes, comparison of surgical techniques used, information on post-operative pain, survival rates among patients, and identification of the highest performing procedures. Public reports will be peer reviewed prior to the publication of findings. These reports will provide recommendations based on data to enable clinicians to engage in evidence based outcomes. Regular publication of registry reports will be used to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of any recommendations made.