Supporting a practice to increase engagement with the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program through the Alternative Access Model

About the practice

Medicross Victoria Point is the Medical Practice Services conveniently located in the Victoria Point Shopping Centre.

The practice was excited to engage in a quality improvement activity with the Brisbane South PHN and learn more about the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. One GP was keen to establish the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR) integration within the practice clinical software to easily view the patient’s screening status.

The challenge

The practice used Best Practice and had not integrated this with the NCSR portal. As they were part of a group of practices, they required IT and administrative support from offsite to facilitate the software integration.  The integration process involves several steps, so this resulted in some delays. The integration was established within two months.

What we did

• the practice manager worked with the practice’s IT provider & the medical group director to establish the integration of the NCSR hub within the clinical software

• the practice nurse and 1 GP worked together to establish delegation access within the NCSR healthcare provider portal.   The healthcare provider portal is a website accessed through PRODA which allows practitioners to view and submit screening data for the bowel, cervical and lung cancer screening programs as well as order the national bowel cancer screening program kits

• the practice nurse bulk ordered 30 kits to the practice through the healthcare provider portal 

• a team meeting was held to establish the following process:

  • the practice nurse reviewed the ‘bowel and breast cancer screening’ report  through Primary Sense most afternoons to identify overdue and eligible patients

  • the practice nurse used the existing appointment filter function to see which patients were attending the practice the following day who were eligible or overdue for bowel cancer screening.

  • there was a strong focus on those aged 45-49, as this age group does not get a kit sent in the mail (this starts at age 50), however all eligible and overdue people aged 45-74 with an existing appointment were endeavoured to be reviewed and approached.   

  • the practice nurse made a note in the appointment calendar for the GP stating: ‘due bowel screening – please discuss’

  • the GP reviewed this note and discussed the importance of regular bowel cancer screening with the patient during the consult. 

  • if the patient agreed to undertake screening, the GP generated the ‘bowel kit issued by healthcare provider’ form through the NCSR Hub in Best Practice and gave this to the patient, along with a national bowel cancer screening program kit. 

  • occasionally the GP delegated form generating task to the practice nurse, who completed the form and provided the national bowel cancer program kit to the patient.

  • at times, the NCSR integration within Best Practice was not working due to technical issues. In these instances, the practice nurse logged into PRODA and generated the ‘bowel kit issued by healthcare’ form through the NCSR healthcare provider portal.

  • the practice nurse was equipped with a patient demo kit, translated resources and ability to answer any questions the patient had about bowel cancer screening.

Results and impact

The practice achieved integration of the NCSR within Best Practice, this took approximately two months. 

In one month, 14 National Bowel Cancer Screening Program kits were handed out to eligible patients. 

Prior to this project, the practice would hand patients a private faecal occult blood test request if the patient was eligible or overdue for screening. The practice team have transitioned to using the national bowel cancer program kit for screening purposes, which contributes to national screening data and efforts. 

Additionally, the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program has a built-in participant follow up function, which supports the recall process. 

What will the practice do to ensure this becomes business as usual

The practice will continue to bulk order the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program kits and manage stocktake and expiry dates.

The practice will continue to discuss bowel cancer screening with patients using an opportunistic and targeted approach.

What can other practices do to participate? (Key messages for other practices)

1. integrate your clinical software with the NCSR: Clinical Software Integration | National Cancer Screening Register

2. set up to order the national bowel cancer screening program kits to your practice: Alternative access to bowel screening kits for healthcare providers | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

3. follow our self-paced activity for more guidance: Ordering National Bowel Cancer Screening kits for your patients | Brisbane South PHN