Improving feedback to general practice

Page contents: Summary of practices and principles of general practice feedback and communication | Examples of work to improve feedback | Plan, Do, Study, Act project to improve feedback to general practice

Feedback from agencies to general practice about clients they have in common is an important part of effective multi-disciplinary care.  To assist agencies to improve the quality of feedback to general practice, below are:

• key principles of good practice from work completed by community health
• examples of work done by community health services to improve feedback – this work provides you with tools and protocols already in use by community health services
• information about the PDSA project to improve feedback to general practice

Summary of practices and principles of general practice feedback and communication

These resources provide some key lessons from the work already completed by community health services to improve feedback to general practice.

A summary of the practices and principles of quality feedback and communication to general practice is available below.

General Practice Engagement in Integrated Chronic Disease Management (192kb, pdf)

Practices and Principles of good feedback (25kb, Excel)

Examples of work to improve feedback

Whitehorse Community Health Service and Melbourne East General Practice Network
Best practice guidelines for Communication between Whitehorse Community Health Service and General Practitioners (71kb, pdf)

Whitehorse Division of General Practice Principles of written communication to GPs (61kb, pdf)

ABC Community Health Service referral acknowledgment (38kb, pdf)

Central Bayside Community Health Services
Minimum standards for GP communication (33kb, pdf)

Ballarat and district division of general practices
Health professionals' feedback report (87kb, MS Word)

Wimmera Primary Care Partnership
Map of the feedback loop and template for feedback to support the diabetes self-management program. 

Plan, Do, Study, Act project to improve feedback to general practice

Seven community health services are working with their local divisions of general practice to do rapid Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) quality improvement cycles aimed at improving community health’s engagement with general practice. The PDSA cycles will initially focus on improving feedback to general practice from community health on services provided to their clients and recommended follow-up treatments/services. The lessons from this work will be shared with other community health services and will feed into the future service coordination work. For more information, go to contacts information.

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