New health quality intelligence tools support quality improvement

The Health Quality & Safety Commission (the Commission) plays a key role in supporting the health sector to improve the quality and safety of services. One of the core building blocks the health sector needs for data-informed quality improvement, identified both in the Health and Disability System Review and in Wai 2575, is meaningful, useable health quality intelligence. 

In response, the Commission is launching two health intelligence tools. 

Launched on 1 July, the new Measures Library | He Kete Rauemi will publish a range of quality-focused measures and resources in a centralised reference ‘library’ with the aim of creating a common understanding of health system and service measurement. 

The Measures Library will support the reformed health system goals of improving equity in outcomes and experiences of care by highlighting which specific measures can be used to support initiatives intended to improve health care design and delivery. 

The library is located within the Health Quality Intelligence web resources and links to other resources, such as the Atlas of Healthcare Variation. It also includes: 

• detailed technical documents 
• a summary of the results for each measure, with data available to download 
• management documents that describe how given measures should be interpreted to inform and/or influence quality improvement 
• case documents identifying how measures have been used to inform improvement projects 
• high-level data visualisations.  

The Commission will continue to work with sector stakeholders to include new measures, features and resources to ensure the library remains up to date and relevant. 

View the Measures Library app on: https://reports.hqsc.govt.nz/measures-library  

From 7 July, Experience Explorer, an improved tool for reporting results from the national patient experience programme will provide access to results from both the adult hospital inpatient experience survey and the adult primary care patient experience survey. 

Four times a year, the survey programme invites patients to provide feedback. Over 2021/22, more than 130,000 respondents provided feedback.  

This patient feedback is broken down by district health board, age, gender, ethnic group and disability status. Growing evidence tells us patient experience is a good indicator of the quality of health services. Experience Explorer provides important starting points to understand who is experiencing better and poorer quality of care and where patient experiences are similar or different.  

These tools are intended to support central agencies by: 

• providing valuable insights for policy analysis 
• assisting with monitoring of overall system performance 
• providing important avenues for bringing consumer voices into national planning. 

Health providers should continue to access their own survey results through the secure online portal provided by Ipsos. This provides a rich source of information from patients, including qualitative feedback.