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About PCOC
What is PCOC?
PCOC is a voluntary quality initiative to assist
palliative care service providers to improve practice
and meet the "Standards for Providing Quality
Palliative Care for all Australians".
Our aim is to develop and support a national benchmarking
system that will contribute to improved palliative
care outcomes.
PCOC is a collaboration between four centres and
is divided into four zones for the purpose of engaging
with palliative care service providers.
PCOC Fact Sheet
The four PCOC zones and partners are:
-
Centre
for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong
– PCOC Central
-
WA
Centre for Cancer & Palliative Care, Curtin
University of Technology – PCOC West
-
Department of Palliative and Supportive Studies, Flinders University of South Australia
– PCOC South
-
Institute
of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland
University of Technology - PCOC North
Why PCOC?
Why is the government supporting PCOC?
The policy objective of the Australian Government is to improve the standard of palliative care by
improving access to and the quality of palliative
care. PCOC directly helps achieve this objective
because it is a voluntary quality network that aims
to help palliative care services improve practice.
How is PCOC funded?
The Australian Government provides funds to PCOC.
The funds are sourced from the Australian Health
Care Agreements 2003-2008 national program funds.
Why have PCOC?
All stakeholders asked for a process that supports
continuous quality improvement for palliative care
services. This was expressed through the National
Palliative Care Strategy: A National Framework
for Palliative Care Service Development October
2000. The Strategy is a consensus document that "represents
the commitment of Commonwealth, State and Territory
governments, palliative care service providers and
community-based organisations to the development
and implementation of palliative care policies,
strategies and services that are consistent across
Australia, and to the delivery of palliative care
that is accessible to all people who are dying".
PCOC is an initiative that specifically helps meet
Goal 2 of the Strategy "to support continuous
improvement in the quality and effectiveness of
palliative care service deliver across Australia".
Who can join PCOC?
Participation in PCOC is voluntary and open to all
palliative care service providers across Australia.
For the purposes of defining a palliative care service,
PCOC uses Palliative Care Australia's Standards
for Providing Quality Palliative Care for all Australians
as a guideline.
Representation is sought from public and private
health sectors; rural and metropolitan areas and inpatient
and ambulatory settings.
What is the process for
joining PCOC?
- Service providers will be supported by the Quality Improvement Facilitators
to join PCOC
- Discussion about PCOC and what is involved occurs at service level with management and the
clinical team
- Registration process - service providers joining
PCOC are asked to complete a registration form
- Collection of PCOC information - Service providers will be assisted to review current information collection systems and practices in view of PCOC requirements. The Quality Improvement Facilitator will assist you in ensuring the software
used for collection will allow for submission to PCOC
- Staff training - PCOC will provide education and
training, particularly focused on collecting information using clinical assessments. Quality Improvement Facilitators will assist and support service providers with ongoing education
- Collection of PCOC information commences and routinely sent to the
University of Wollongong for analysis
- Six monthly reports are provided to service providers
- Feedback to service providers forms the basis for
quality improvements
PCOC Services
PCOC works with palliative care service providers
to:
-
Develop consistency in the collection
of information
-
Provide evidence through the
collection and analysis of information
-
Assist with quality and standards
reporting
-
Provide a benchmarking service
Promote and support palliative
care research
It is anticipated that a number of research opportunities
will evolve as data is collected and analysed. Enquiries
should be directed to the PCOC
Manager.
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