CAT4 and Clinicial Systems Support

Brisbane South PHN is committed to supporting healthcare providers to improve data quality.
Brisbane South PHN supports general practices to collect, analyse and utilise their clinical data.
This data can be used by general practices in planning, implementing and monitoring business and clinical system initiatives, which can lead to improved health outcomes for patients.
All general practices who sign a Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) will receive FREE access to the CAT Plus software suite, monthly benchmark and trend reports, access to training and invites to any upcoming webinars.
Contact the Digital Health Team
Email: ehealth@bsphn.org.au
Phone: 1300 467 265
What is included in the CAT Plus software suite?
The PEN CS CAT Plus software suite includes three practice-based data extraction and decision support tools: CAT4, Topbar and PAT CAT that connects to compatible clinical software: and assists with quality improvement. Practices that have a Data Sharing Agreement with Brisbane South PHN receive free access to these tools, including personalised training.
Click here for an overview of how these tools can assist in quality improvement.
To obtain a Data Sharing Agreement, please contact the Digital Health Team.
CAT4
CAT4 is a clinical audit tool which interrogates data within general practice clinical software and displays the results in graphical and tabular reports.
The extracted data can then be filtered to identify individual and groups of patients or those with specific health risk profiles.
General practices can use the data collected through CAT4 to:
- build targeted registers of patients to support practice recall and reminders
- investigate and identify population health issues that are specific to your own practice
- quickly and easily identify patients who are not meeting clinical targets
- identify key health outcome measures for an individual patient
- identify income potential in areas of chronic disease management
- provide evidence to support quality improvement initiatives as part of accreditation.
Topbar
Topbar prompts administrative and clinical staff to opportunistically capture missing demographic or clinical information at the point of care. It can play a significant role in improving general practice data quality, chronic disease management and eHealth. Topbar is available for practices using Best Practice, MD3 or ZedMed software.
Topbar has has a number of applications that can be tailored to meet the practice needs.
PAT CAT
PAT CAT is a web-based tool that aggregates de-identified general practice data within the Brisbane South region and displays the information through a comprehensive collection of graphs, charts and reports. This allows participating practices to review their data and benchmark against de-identified practices in the Brisbane South PHN region.
PAT CAT has been designed to assist primary care organisations with population health, service planning and reporting.
Training and resources
MyPen PORTAL INSTRUCTIONS
Topbar resources
- Topbar Flip Guide
- PenCS Topbar demonstration video
- Topbar Install Guide
- Topbar Automatic Start-up instructions
CAT4 resources
- CAT4 Guide
- CAT4 Start-Up Process
- CAT4 Guides
- Submitting De-Identified Data via CAT4 for Practix and Genie practices
- Checking for latest CAT 4 version and current data extract
- CAT4 and Topbar Password Reset Instructions
- PEN CS Privacy Poster for General Practice
Benchmark and trend reports (Sharefile)
Practices that hold a Data Sharing Agreement and submit data via the PEN CS CAT 4 tool to Brisbane South PHN receive a monthly Benchmark Report and Trend Report.
Both reports present a snap shot of the practices key chronic disease management , data completeness, and health screening measures that are intended to:
- assist in understanding the trends in your patients and their conditions, participation in care and clinical outcomes
- improve data quality
- assist in identifying quality improvement priorities
- improve systems and care provided to patients.
These reports are accessed via a secure Sharefile account for each practice. Instructions to create and use Sharefile are detailed in the links below.
Sharefile access and manage:
- Form for nomination of Benchmark report access & PIP QI details form
- Link to Sharefile
- Sharefile access instructions
- Sample benchmark report
- Sample trend report
- Accompanying data mapping document for BSPHN Practice Benchmark Report V2.1
- Practice Report FAQs
Using CAT4
Creating reports: Inactive patient records
The following instructions outline the process to bulk archive inactive patients within the clinical software:
Data completeness
Below are links to bulk cleanup of free-text diagnosis instructions
Below are links to short videos outlining how to identify active patients with no recorded:
Chronic disease
Below are links to short videos outlining how to identify active patients:
- At risk of developing chronic disease
- With chronic condition who have not claimed MBS
- Not coded with coronary heart disease
- Not coded with asthma
- Not coded with diabetes
- Diabetes SIP items to be complete
- With a mental health condition who have not claimed MBS
Health promotion
Below are links to short videos outlining how to identify patients who are eligible for:
Vaccination fact sheets
The following fact sheets provide instructions on identifying patients with vaccinations not complete in Topbar and coding vaccinations not given at practice in clinical software.
There is also a range of downloadable ‘recipes’ that are designed to give users a simple step-by-step guide to a particular problem or question. Find the recipes here.
For additional information and support visit help.pencs.com.au or contact the Digital Health Team.
Quality improvement resources