Building Digital Health program

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. By participating in the Brisbane South PHN Building Digital Health program, general practices will receive free access to these tools including personalised training.

Click here for an overview of how these tools can assist in quality improvement.

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 four main applications that can be tailored to meet the practice needs.

The Waiting Room App provides staff with a quick view of patients who are currently in the waiting room and missing demographic or clinical data.

The Cleansing App provides the clinician with a quick view of the patients’ record and highlights missing demographic and clinical information..

The MBS App shows recommended actions and claim status relating to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).

The Patient Health Summary App displays information from the patients’ medical record and displays it in chronological order.

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.

Involvement in the Building Digital Health Program is through a tiered approach. This approach enables all practices with compatible software to have access to the CAT Plus suite, at a level that suits their requirements.

The three tiers are outlined below.

Tier 1:

This tier is suitable for practices seeking an entry level of participation.

Participating practices will receive:

• free access to the CAT Plus software suite
• initial training and ad hoc support as required
• quarterly benchmark reports to compare individual general practice data with the rest of the region
• invitations to events and group training sessions.

Tier 2:

This tier is suitable for practices seeking a more structured approach to improving and utilising their clinical data. The Brisbane South PHN Digital Health team will support participating general practices to complete a range of activities focused on data completeness, disease coding and health check eligibility.

Participating practices will receive:

• free access to the CAT Plus software suite and ongoing training tailored to your needs
• a range of resources including step by step activity guides
• monthly benchmark reports to track your progress and compare your data against other participating practices
• invitations to events and group training sessions.

Tier 3 – Optimal Care:

This tier is suitable for practices wanting to achieve best health outcomes in chronic disease management. It assists general practices, which are ready to make changes in their systems and management of patients. The Brisbane South PHN Optimal Care team works collaboratively with the Digital Health team to identify practices and invite them to participate in Optimal Care.

To register for the Building Digital Health Program, contact the Brisbane South PHN Digital Health team via email: ehealth@bsphn.org.au or phone 1300 467 265.

The team will discuss the level of involvement which each practice likes to have with the program (Tier 1, 2 or 3) and provide all of the documentation required to proceed. This includes a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the practice and Brisbane South PHN.

The MOU outlines the requirements for the practice to automatically submit de-identified data on a monthly basis to Brisbane South PHN. This de-identified data allows us to create local population health analysis. It is also used in creating the practice benchmark reports.

• Privacy and security guidance for general practices
• Guide to using PRODA
• Clinical health record calendar

MyPen Portal Instructions

• Creating CAT4/ Topbar users in the MyPen Portal 

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
• Navigating CAT4 video
• 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)

Sharefile access and manage:

• Form for nomination of Benchmark report access & PIP QI details form
• Link to Sharefile
• Sharefile access instructions

Benchmark and trend report interpretation:

• Sample benchmark report
• Sample trend report (coming soon!)
• Accompanying data mapping document for BSPHN Practice Benchmark Report V2.0 

Using CAT4 – Creating reports: Inactive patient records

The following instructions outline the process to bulk archive inactive patients within the clinical software:

• Best Practice 
• Medical Director
• PractiX
• Genie

Data completeness 
Below are links to bulk cleanup of free-text diagnosis instructions

• Best practice
• Medical Director

Below are links to short videos outlining how to identify active patients with no recorded:

• Date of birth
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Allergies
• Smoking status
• Alcohol consumption
• Physical activity levels
• BMI
• Duplicate patient records

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:

• 75+ year old health check
• 45-49 year old health check
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health check
• flu vaccine

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:

• Best Practice
• Medical Director 

There are also a range of downloadable ‘recipes’ which 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 Brisbane South PHN Digital Health Team via email: ehealth@bsphn.org.au or phone 1300 467 265.