SearchJune: QI Activity
Health Topic: Bowel Cancer
Bowel Cancer Awareness Month runs from 1 - 30 June, 2024
June is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and it brings the positive message, “save lives through early detection”.
- Bowel cancer (also known as colorectal cancer) is the third most common type of newly diagnosed cancer in Australia.
- 15,531 Australians are told they have bowel cancer each year (299 a week), including 1,716 people under the age of 50.
- Bowel cancer claims the lives of 5,350 Australians every year (103 a week), including 315 people under the age of 50
Step 1: Identify your QI Measures
Start by considering which of the relevant QI measures you will work towards in support of Kidney Health Month. Measures you could choose from that are relevant for patients who have or potentially have renal disease related symptoms or issues are:
1. Proportion of patients with diabetes with a current HbA1c result
8. Proportion of patients with the necessary risk factors assessed to enable CVD assessment
10. Proportion of patients with diabetes with a blood pressure result.
Step 2: Undertake your QI activity
We've prepared a simple worksheet that can help you work through activity you will need undertake to meet the Improvement Measure you have selected.
1. Identify your plan, using the Model for Improvement:
- What are you trying to accomplish? eg. increase the number patients 50 years and older who participate in bowel cancer screening
- How will we know that change is an improvement? Set a specific measure or SMART goal, eg. Increase the proportion of active patients aged 50-74 years that participate in bowel cancer screening by 15% by the end of the October (PIP Quarter 1)
- What changes can you make that will result in improvement? Come up with your own ideas or consider ours below.
2. Some possible ideas you could choose to do:
- Identify patients aged 49 by completing a search on Pen CS. Contact these patients via letter, phone, SMS etc. to encourage participation in the Bowel Screening program.
- Identify patients aged 50 by completing a search on Pen CS. Contact those patients who have not yet had a FOBT result recorded.
- Create an ongoing system for sending a letter to people aged 49 to encourage their participation in the screening program.
- Clinical team discuss how they can encourage opportunistic screening.
- Add bowel cancer screening to templates for chronic disease management and 45–49-year-old health assessments.
- Source and provide endorsed patient education resources in waiting rooms, toilets etc.
- Run an awareness campaign for bowel cancer awareness month.
3. Document your actions
- Use our PDSA Worksheet to document your activity.
4. Resources to help you
- Steps on how to complete a search on Pen CS
- Template for a patient letter
- Templates for CDM and 45-49 year old health assessments that include bowel cancer screening
- Patient education resources from Bowel Cancer Australia
- Posters that you can print and put up in your clinic
Further resources
More information and resources to support you this month:
[note other resources can include relevant links to podcasts, TALK ABOUT research, news stories, commissioned services, etc...]
Need PHN support?
Our Primary Care Liaison team is available to provide one-on-one support.
