Managing NQIP

The National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program (NQIP) is a quality measurement and improvement program. It was introduced in July 2019 to monitor and improve the quality of care being delivered across Commonwealth subsidised Residential Aged Care services.

A set of quality indicators were identified as being crucial to evaluating the quality of care being provided to residents.

The current quality indicators are: 

• Pressure Injuries
• Physical Restraint
• Unplanned Weight Loss
• Falls and Major Injury
• Medication management, including:
  • Polypharmacy
  • Anti-psychotics 

Residential Aged Care providers are required to submit data on these quality indicators every three months via the 'My Aged Care' service provider portal. 

Reporting on these indicators promotes greater transparency across the industry. It allows for benchmarking and for providers to compare their progress with that of their peers. Ultimately, this data should drive continuous improvement across crucial care areas. 

The role of a clinical management system

A clinical management system can assist care providers to meet their NQIP obligations in a number of ways. These include:

Data collection

Where possible, AutumnCare ensures data is captured using existing forms and charts, so that data collection is embedded into existing clinical processes and daily tasks. These workflows assist with the collection of data for NQIP without increasing the administrative burden on care providers.

Where data must be collected separately, for example, on a specific day during a dedicated audit, AutumnCare provides easy-to-use charts to make this process simple and efficient. 

Reporting of data 

AutumnCare provides a link to the 'My Aged Care' service provider portal. Once care providers are confident that their data is accurate and complete, they can navigate directly to the portal to lodge their quarterly reports.

Identifying trends and providing insight 

AutumnCare distributes individual quality indicator reports at the end of every month. This allows care providers to review progress towards each quality indicator prior to the end of the reporting quarter. Any concerning trends can then be investigated, and interventions implemented if required. 

Other tools like automated alerts and dashboard indicators can help staff remain up to date on the status of crucial care areas in real time. 

A clinical system like AutumnCare contains the level of detail required to drill deeper into a trend to provide insight into what is occurring. For example, what other contributing factors may be involved in an increased volume of falls. 

Support for continuous improvement 

Care providers are able to set benchmarks or acceptable parameters within AutumnCare. Staff will then be notified via alerts or dashboard indicators when results fall outside the acceptable parameters, alerting to the possible need for action.

AutumnCare provides a number of tools that assist care providers to collect data for NQIP.

The AutumnCare NQIP toolset includes:

• Charts to capture data on
  • Pressure Injuries
  • Physical Restraint
  • Unplanned Weight Loss 
  • Polypharmacy
  • Anti-psychotics 
• An Incident Form for collecting data on
  • Falls and Major Injury
• Monthly reports containing data for each resident for each individual quality indicator 

Additional Quality Indicators 

The data collection period for an additional set of quarterly quality indicators will commence on the 1st of April 2023.

Care providers will be required to submit data on the additional and existing quality indicators for the April to June 2023 quarter on the 'My Aged Care' service provider portal no later than the 21st of July 2023, and the 21st of the month following each quarter thereafter. 

The additional quality indicators are:

• Activities of Daily Living
• Incontinence Care
• Hospitalisation
• Workforce 
• Consumer Experience
• Quality of Life

AutumnCare is currently developing new tools to assist with the collection of data for some of these indicators. Stay tuned to find out more about this soon.

Speak to AutumnCare today

AutumnCare is an aged care software provider based in Western Australia. We specialise in the management of clinical data through industry best practice forms. Get in touch with us today if you'd like to find out more about how we can help you.