Flinders Caring Futures Institute researcher Professor Julie Ratcliffe was invited to present at the inaugural Patient Reported Measures (PRMs) Research Symposium on Friday, March 18.
PRMs are designed to give aged care consumers a voice. Consisting of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMS) and Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMS), they capture patients’ impressions of their own health and exposure to health care services, with the aim of improving long term outcomes.
Attended by researchers, health care practitioners and representatives from SA Health, the Symposium theme was Improving outcomes and experience through applied research and clinical initiatives using PRMs. The PRM Collaborative brings together a network of professionals with expertise and interest in PRMs research, fostering collaboration in the health setting.
Professor Ratcliffe’s presentation was entitled Measuring quality of life and quality of care experience with older Australians for quality assessment and economic evaluation in health and aged care settings. She had the opportunity to discuss the development of the QOL-ACC tools for quality assessment and economic evaluation with older people across health and aged care settings, developed by Flinders Caring Futures Institute researchers.
Working directly with consumers accessing home and residential aged care services, the QOL-ACC tools have been created to enable quality assessment and economic evaluation, placing the measurement and valuation of quality of care experience and quality of life from the perspective of older Australians at the heart of aged care.
The different elements that contribute to quality of life, such as social connections, pain management and physical health were discussed, including the potential for the tool to be implemented internationally and in both home and residential care facilities.
Professor Ratcliffe says she is pleased with the outcome of her presentation.
“The response was overwhelmingly positive and we are hopeful that the QOL-ACC tool will soon be implemented across a variety of health care settings.”
A six-week residential aged care pilot program using the tool began this week.
For more information visit www.qol-acc.org.