Lumos in action

Driving local improvements

The Lumos program provides new data back to participating practices and can be used to guide local improvements to services. Some participating general practices are currently using Lumos data to:

• improve their triage processes to reduce unnecessary presentations to the emergency department (ED).
• match their opening hours and types of care delivered to the needs of their patients.
• increase testing for the chronic diseases most relevant to their patients.
• improve access to care for patients closer to home.
• support the development of internal quality improvement projects.

In 2021, Dr Mafohla and his team will be using their Lumos General Practice Report to improve access to health care for their patients closer to home. Data on emergency department presentations by time of day and triage categories will be used to inform different models of care across their team and time of day, to ensure the right care for patients at the right time and in the right place.

Underpinning value-based healthcare

At a state-wide level, the Lumos data asset can underpin large-scale improvements and refocus the system from high volume care to high value care through initiative such as:

• Collaborative Commissioning (CC) - Lumos data is used in dynamic modelling and for monitoring and evaluation, to ensure that value-based healthcare initiatives are informed by reliable data and improve outcomes for patients and the community. Lumos data will be also used to support the evaluation of CC partnerships.
• Integrated Care – The Lumos program provides unique information about patients enrolled in Integrated Care initiatives to better understand the interactions of different health care settings in the patient journey.

Informing policy

Lumos data is also informing policy, for example:

• information developed on rates and times of general practice follow-up after hospital discharge is informing policy on how much medication is provided to patients on discharge from hospital
• exploring patterns in how patients access primary care and other services over time is helping to understand changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic
• understanding the patterns of health service use by patients with mental health diagnosis is being explored to inform policies that can improve access to and quality of mental health care.

"The Lumos insights are invaluable. They really helped focus executive discussions on how to improve the patient journey; there are a range of funding reform opportunities that the Lumos evidence base could inform"

Ryan Broom, A/ Director Policy and Funding Reform, NSW Ministry of Health