New Zeland

Comprehensive Care supports General Practices with a range of services. We provide both clinical and business support, to ensure that our practices can deliver progressive and accessible whānau-centred health and wellbeing services. 

 

Supporting General Practice Teams

All our people, from clinical experts to business advisors, are committed to caring for the health and wellbeing of all people in our communities. We work seamlessly within and across the healthcare sector to share skills and knowledge so our Doctors and Nurses can serve the healthcare needs of our 246,000 enrolled members and all the people in our community.  

Simply put, we support healthcare provider teams and General Practices so they can focus on what they do best – helping you to live a happier, healthier life for longer. 

Some of the ways we support Practices and Providers includes: 

 

Free ongoing education

Our comprehensive education courses support workforce capability, clinical knowledge and skill development. We also provide evidence of continuing competency within our healthcare professionals’ scope of practice, as required by the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act. 

Our online learning management system, Taku Ako (my learning) enables learners to manage their own learning journey, in a secure, user-friendly online portal, which offers learning programmes for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, Health Coaches and Health Improvement Practitioners, along with medical receptionists and practice managers.

We also manage GP Peer Group meetings to provide practical and social support for our provider network. These are delivered digitally using online platforms to help offer advice and discussion on, but not limited to: 

  • Management of COVID-19, streaming patients, IPC measures, swabbing and N95 masking etc.  
  • Clinical topics relevant to general practice 
  • Topical subjects within the sector, including development of Clinical Pathways  
  • Case discussions 

 

Continuing medical and nursing education

We have an ongoing commitment to continuing professional education for our General Practices and Providers, ensuring the needs of the people in our communities are being met, in the ever-evolving changes and developments within healthcare.  

We offer clinical staff a range of short courses, connect them to professional education as well as offering education support, coaching, mentorship, supervision and pastoral care. 

We support, direct and assess nurses undertaking portfolios and developing career pathways. 

Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) are combined for all sessions. This reflects the collaborative approach to General Practice Team working and our vision of ‘optimum health for all’. 

Comprehensive Care is a registered provider of CME. We are required to provide high quality CME for all our General Practitioners and maintain records of needs analysis, programmes offered, and programme evaluation. 

We co-ordinate professional development education sessions for Primary Health/Practice Nurses. These sessions ensure the medical and nursing workforce has opportunities to improve their learning and professional development and enables doctors and nurses to maintain the requirement of professional development for their competency based Annual Practicing Certificate. 

The programme is circulated at the start of the calendar year, with details and reminders provided prior to each session to all General Practice Teams. 

 

CPR Courses

Comprehensive Care provides free CPR courses (level 3-5) to all people in the Comprehensive Care network. These courses are scheduled annually and are an important part of our continuing education services.  

 

Cold Chain and immunisation services

Our immunisation and Cold Chain team supports General Practice and community immunisation providers delivering nationally scheduled immunisations to monitor the cold chain to ensure high clinical standards. 

Immunisation support includes education, clinical and peer assessments, and system advice to support achievement of health targets or specific health initiatives.  

We work within the health care ecosystem to support the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre (NRHCC) to roll out the COVID-19 Immunisation strategy, supporting super vaccination site set up and assisting our providers to prepare and deliver COVID-19 immunisations. Alongside our member practices the PHO clinical team also support all immunisation providers, not affiliated with a PHO, in WDHB with Cold Chain and immunisation support totalling more than 150 providers as diverse as the prison to the military bases within our DHB. 

We also support the management of all Cold Chain Accreditation/Compliance (3-yearly) and annual fridge loggings, as per Ministry of Health National Cold Chain Standards 2017.  

Cold Chain management supports GP and Pharmacist vaccination providers across the region in maintaining their Cold Chain standards to ensure vaccine safety and integrity. Our clinical team support clinical assessments, annual logging, cold chain management and education.  

 

Respiratory training (GASP Tool)

Comprehensive Care’s respiratory team develops training programmes for health professionals who work with people that have respiratory issues – predominantly asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Mentorship and support is provided to health professionals to improve their respiratory skills. Our Giving Airways Support to Patients (GASP) tool enables primary care health professionals to capture an asthma assessment and provide decision support appropriate to the person based on the most current guidelines. 

Respiratory – Asthma

Funding is available for Comprehensive Care practices undertaking asthma assessments using the GASP tool. 

GASP (Giving Airways Support to Patients) is a web-based asthma assessment and decision support tool. The tool design is to offer each patient a comprehensive asthma assessment, education, trigger advice and a personal asthma management plan. The built-in decision support ensures evidence based best practice in accordance with current asthma guidelines.  

Respiratory – COPD

We recognise winter is a particularly difficult time for patients with respiratory diseases such as COPD. COPD exacerbations place significant strain on our health service resources and are a major cause of hospital admission. Exacerbations contribute to a more rapid decline in lung function and an increase in respiratory symptoms. Comprehensive Care’s winter package of care is designed to provide prevention strategies and enable earlier intervention should an exacerbation occur.   

 

Population Health initiatives

Comprehensive Care partners with community organisations and providers to foster health promotion activities in our communities to improve health literacy and empower people in our communities to manage their health and wellbeing through lifestyle changes and knowledge. These bespoke initiatives improve health literacy, reduce inequalities and aim to improve long-term health outcomes. 

Initiatives also aim to increase health knowledge and reduce inequalities particularly within Māori, Pacific and Asian groups, and to cement closer links with the communities we serve. 

Initiatives include events where we provide free health checks and relevant information from other health providers across a broad range of services, alongside promoting programmes available through General Practice teams. 

Comprehensive Care also partners with providers for specific promotional events in the community, and attends community events to promote Comprehensive Care services and general practice. 

Health literacy and promotion at a Pratice level is also important as it gives patients resources and tools to empower them to take control of their own health and to stay healthy. We align with national awareness initiatives, such as Mental Health Awareness Week, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, World Smokefree Day, to support providers with resources to help their communications with patients. 

 

Business support and advice

Our Practice Liason Team offers dedicated support to our practices, helping with the flow of information between the practice and the PHO, and supporting the management, funding, technology and information needs of the Practice Owners, Managers, Doctors and Nurses in our community so they can serve the healthcare needs of our enrolled members and all the people in our community.

The wider business support team functions include a dedicated helpdesk to help with technology support, such as liasing with Practice Management Software (PMS) vendors, supporting updates and the development of forms.

 

 

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New Zeland