APCC




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Where to start

Before running the APCC reports you need to be aware of the importance of Data Quality. You may be familiar with the term RIRO - RUBBISH IN, RUBBISH OUT! The information available on your clinical software system can be an invaluable tool in assisting patient care and streamlining practice systems. However, for this data to be useful you must keep your clinical database accurate and up to date.

When running the APCC reports it is strongly recommended that you follow the steps belowto ensure that you have an accurate database from which to run the reports, then once you have run the reports you have some questions to consider about the quality of your data and also some ideas on how you can use this data to improve your practice systems.

Appoint a person to manage your diabetes & CHD registers. (What is a Register?)
Have this person archive all of your inactive & deceased patient's records. (Why?)
Contact your Pathology providers and have them send your results in HL7 format. (What is HL7?)
Run the APCC report (Running Reports)
Analyse your results. We have recorded some of the most commonly asked questions in relation to the results (Report results)
Then consider how to use the results to improve your practice and patient care delivery (Next Steps)

What is a Disease Register? How do I create one?
A disease register is simply a list of people who share the same condition. Registers create themselves automatically when you use your clinical software correctly. If you code conditions for your patients correctly (see below) you can then make your computer print a list of all people who have that particular condition. That is your register.

What is diagnosis coding?
When you wish to enter a diagnosis (or condition or reason for visit) into the patient notes, you should choose an item from the list provided in your software package rather than entering a free text description. Choosing from the list is known as "coding" your diagnosis, because you are assigning a standard disease code to the patient. The benefit of using codes is that it allows you to locate all patients who have the same condition, easily. (i.e. All my type 2 diabetics) Using a free text description means that it is not possible to find a cohort of patients easily as they are likely to have many different descriptions for the same condition.

Each clinical software package has a coding system built in. Some well known systems include:

ICPC - International Classification of Primary Care
ICD10 - International Classification of Diseases. Version 10
SnoMed - Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine
Docle - Doctor Command Language

Archiving inactive / deceased patients. Why bother?
It helps you accurately determine the number of patients under your care. Knowing this figure is very useful in business planning. Archiving also prevents patients you are no longer concerned with appearing in the reports and skewing the numbers. Be prepared for this to be a large task initially as there is every chance it has never been done before in your practice. Archived records can be easily recovered in future should this be required. This is important and should not be overlooked.

What are HL7 pathology results? How do I get them?
HL7 is a format for the transfer of electronic results to your practice. It is replacing the older PIT format. The advantage of HL7 results is that, once you have reviewed the incoming result, a copy of its contents is distributed throughout the patients electronic record. The result is then able to be included in a search. In other words, if a result contains an HbA1c value, this is automatically placed in the correct field in the patient's diabetic record. It saves you the trouble of manually transferring the result value to the correct place in the patient notes.

Apply to each path lab to have your results sent in HL7 format. It is free.

Why do I see NPCC instead of APCC on this site and in the practice software?

Due to the Program name being changed from NPCC to APCC for Phase 2, there may be instances where the pages within this site or your practice reporting software is showing NPCC (or National Primary Care Collaboratives) rather than APCC or Australian Primary Care Collaboratives). We are working through the site and with the practice software providers to update this.