New screening tools to measure healthcare outcomes
7 November 2022
SIRA has published a range of standardised outcome measures for healthcare providers to screen an injured person’s health status in the motor accidents and workers compensation schemes.
Standardised outcome measures in healthcare can inform the overall care provided to the injured person, by capturing information about their current and future health status to support evidence-based clinical decision-making and care planning.
The directory of standardised outcomes includes screening tools in seven categories, including back pain and psychological injury.
Measuring progress and reporting outcomes will direct service and system improvement for both health providers and insurers to ensure best practice claims management.
When used consistently these measures can help enhance outcomes for injured people and enable tailored support.
SIRA has set the expectation that insurers undertake ongoing screening of injured people in its guidance and standards, including Standard of Practice 33 (Managing psychological injury claims) and 34 (Return to work and early intervention).
The use of standardised outcome measures is a key component in SIRA’s mission to deliver value-based healthcare in the schemes.
These measures respond to Streams 1 and 2 in the Implementation Plan to measure health outcomes and costs, and support enhanced clinical practice.
SIRA will continue to develop and publish more standardised outcome measures for healthcare providers.