ACC Nurse Liaison Group Report
Bruce Yarwood
College representative on this group.
Editors note: Thanks to Bruce for a personal and honest account of the meeting. As always we respect the right of members to express personal insights noting that they may or may not represent the views of the College of Nurses.
The most recent meeting was held on the 2nd March at Shamrock House, Molesworth ., in Wellington. The usual wide range of nurse group representatives were present including
of course College of Nurses Aotearoa in the form of your correspondent. The agenda covered the following topics
Driving Better Client Outcomes in Today’s Economic Climate.
This was an interesting subject in view of the current situation in which ACC finds itself. The conclusion to be drawn is that ACC has obviously been very conscious of the impending financial crisis if not the political one that has been looming for some time. I see this presentation as an attempt to forestall or at least mitigate the perceived inevitable crisis.
The presentation covered:
“The Big Picture”. “ACC's Challenge – Rising Costs”.”Clear Government Priorities”. “Implications for ACC”. “Working Smarter”. Better Claim Management”.'Benefits”.”Purchasing Framework”. “ Better at Work”.”The Year Ahead”.
Succinctly this was a state of the nation presentation, which covered the problems of the Corporation, its strategic direction and flagged a direction for the future, thus fulfilling a need to be seen to be doing something, and to allay any suspicion that the fiddlers were playing while the corporation burned. It is hoped that the political masters are listening although the signs to date suggest some at least may have already stopped.
Copies of the slides of this presentation are available by contacting me or Kevin Morris Director of Clinical Services at ACC (the presenter).
Conference Feedback .
Diane Williams. Nurse Practitioners NZ.
This topic is best covered by Diane herself. I would however take the opportunity to compliment Diane on her very original poster presentation , which I have subsequently borrowed to show the nursing students at CPIT. Please contact Diane directly to see if it is available. The subject is Men’s Health a topic close to my heart.
Update From Provider Relationship Managers Team.
There is a group of relationship managers spread throughout the country whose role is to work with providers in a supporting role – process rather than individual cases. These people can be contacted for advice and assistance in the various regions. The provider helpline should be able to supply contacts for relationship managers for each region. Alternatively for the tech savvy try the ACC website, there is a neat map with the regional contacts on it.
Update from Provider Development
.Tanya Skaler, Programme Manager, R and D, raised the subject of Nursing Quizzes for the Goodfellow Unit. Are people aware of the quizzes on the Goodfellow Unit Website, www.goodfellowclub.org. Worth a visit. Anyway the 1st Quiz on Line is due on line in June 2009. Their target audience is all nurses working in primary health care, nurse educators, postgraduate nursing students, in fact “nurses”. Topics selected: Wounds and Bites, Knee Injuries, Shoulder Injuries, Carpal Tunnel, Hip Fractures in the Elderly. Notice the common theme, but then this is ACC.
The intent is to promote;
- Ease of flexible web-based learning at your own home.
- Eligible for professional development hours.
- Quality learning in a user-friendly form.
- Evidence based resources developed by nurses for nurses.
I must confess I think the whole concept is very exciting and if it takes off in a big way I will have a great excuse to upgrade my internet connection.
Training For Independence Services.
Tawanda Machingura Programme Manager, Rehabilitation Service Development.
There are a number of changes to these programs and some new ones:
Details on these and other programmes can, I am sure, be obtained by contacting Tawanda direct by E Mail.
Treatment Injury.
Karen Williams and Dylan Tap have produced a comprehensive profile paper entitled “ ACC Treatment Injury Claims & Adverse Event Notification Profile: Nursing”. This document is far too long to present here. What the paper does is give an overview of treatment injury claims and adverse event notifications relating to treatment claims lodged since implementation of the treatment injury provisions of July 2005.
The paper makes interesting reading and forms a basis for the case studies that accompany the ACC circular most of us receive. I am sure Karen and Dylan would respond positively to requests for copies of the paper.
The final issue on the agenda was, not unpredictably considering the costs that must be involved, discussion on the future of the nurse liaison group. The conclusion is the group continues but the frequency is reduced to three times a year instead of the current four. As a result I am still open to requests for observations and/or topics for this group. If you have any comments you wish me to forward on your behalf please contact me. Bruce Yarwood on bruce@healthcaresystems.co.nz |
