Increase perimenopause and menopause screening in your practice

What is the aim of this QI activity?

• increase screening for perimenopause and menopause within your practice.

• increase the number of menopause health assessments completed – complete 2 in the next 3 months.

• improve clinician awareness and confidence in identifying perimenopause and menopause symptoms.

By participating in this quality improvement activity, your practice will support consistent, evidence-based care and improve patient outcomes during the menopause transition.

What will I need to do?

• form a quality improvement team - use this Team roles & responsibilities worksheet.

• review the SPA resources and screening tools and upskill clinicians (refer to resource section of activity).

• order resources and promote awareness (optional).

• display posters and brochures in waiting rooms.

• promote menopause awareness through practice social media channels.

• understand the Medicare item number criteria: Item 695 | Medicare Benefits Schedule.

• read the PDSA example supplied in this activity.

To complete the health assessments, refer to Start Your Activity section.

How will I complete this activity?

• use Primary Sense to identify eligible patients, contact patients, have nurses initiate discussions and wellbeing checks.

• complete menopause health assessments.

• review progress during clinical team meetings.

Where do I document my results?

• QI summary register

• manual recording of baseline and final assessment numbers.

• MBS billing reports.

Reflect on your efforts and consider future activities

• review outcomes.

• identify lessons learned and sustainability opportunities.

Who can I contact for support?

For support with this activity please contact the General Practice Quality Improvement team on 38647540 or email [email protected].

1. Identify patients eligible for perimenopause and menopause health assessments. 

On Primary Sense, click on Health Assessment, find the perimenopause/menopause report.

Note: as Primary Sense data is based on information held in your clinical software. It is important to always confirm patients’ eligibility via PRODA. To learn how to do this, please refer to Services Australia website.

Identify 2 patients eligible for the health assessment. Discuss with the patient's regular GP before contacting.

2. Invite identified patients for a health assessment

• determine your contact method for eligible patients e.g. SMS, phone, email, or letter. Consider a follow up method for non-respondents.

• review the list of eligible patients with the GP(s) and identify those suitable for the QI activity.

It may take a few different approaches to find the method that works for your practice and your patients. Be ready to change and adjust your approach based on the responses and feedback you received from your patients and team members. 

Guidance for sending SMS

You may prepare and save Primary Sense report in CSV format (see screenshot below), which will create a patient recall list for use with HotDoc or other compatible applications.

For instructions on sending bulk SMS messages, please contact your SMS service provider.

3. Read the MBS guidelines-Item 695 | Medicare Benefits Schedule.

4. Complete health assessments for eligible patients in your practice.

Complete menopause health assessments using the relevant templates available within your clinical software.

• MedicalDirector -Summary Templates.

• Best Practices-Menopause Health Assessment MBS Items.

• Create a new document from a template- click on supplied.

• Bill MBS item number after HA completed.

What data will be used to track improvement?

• Primary Sense - HA reports.

• team meeting discussions and feedback.

• use MBS billing reports within your software to track monthly MBS Item 695 Health Assessment activity and monitor progress of the QI project.

For Best Practice users

1) From the BP Premier home screen, select Management > Reports

2) Select “Payments- by Account Type (group by item) including related services”

3) Choose the report parameters by selecting the date, locations, and providers. Go to “Billing” and select 695 for MBS items. Click on View Report. 

For MedicalDirector users

1) In Pracsoft, go to Reports > All Reports

2) Under report type, choose Fees.

3) For report name choose Practice Feeds by Item No.

4) In the Common tab, select the reporting date range.

5) Go to Additional tab, and type in the item numbers.

6) Click Print to display the report on screen.

As a team, reflect on how the activity went:

• what worked well?

• did you experience any barriers or challenges?

  • if yes, how did you overcome them?

• what changes could be implemented in your practice to better support perimenopause and menopause health assessments?

Celebrate your achievements as a team!

Share Your Results

Share your findings with your practice team, Brisbane South PHN and other relevant clinical networks and stakeholders, where appropriate.

Next Steps

• review results using Primary Sense and MBS billing data.

• continue staff education and professional development.

• embed menopause health assessments into routine practice workflows.

PDSA - 695 HA final.pdf