SIRA releases new screening tools to improve healthcare outcomes

The State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) of New South Wales has released new standardised outcome measures for healthcare providers to screen injured people's health status in the motor accidents and workers' compensation schemes.

SIRA explained that measuring progress and reporting outcomes will direct service and system improvement for health providers and insurers to ensure best-practice claims management.

The standardised outcome measures are as follows:

• Provide a way to capture information about a person's current or future health status;
• Support clinical decision-making and care planning;
• Identify those at further risk, including a delayed return to work;

Help enhance outcomes for injured people;

• Enable tailored support; and
• Support effective claims management practices.

According to SIRA, the measures can inform the overall care provided to the injured person.

Read more: SIRA sets up team of inspectors

Meanwhile, the common standardised outcome measures are:

• Back pain: Keele STarT back screening tool and Short form Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire (OMSPQ-10);
• Disability: Function in Sitting Test (FIST);
• Head, neck, and upper limb: Headache Disability Index (HDI), Neck Disability Index (NDI), Patient-Rated Wrist Evaluation (PRWE), Quick Disabilities of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (DASH), Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI), and Upper Extremity Functional Index (UEFI);
• Lower limb: Foot and Ankle Disability Index (FADI), Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Scores (HOOS), and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS);
• Pain: Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS), Pain Self Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), and Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK);
• Psychological: Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 42 Item (DASS-42), Impact of Event Scale (IES), and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10); and
• Work productivity: Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI).

SIRA has set an expectation that insurers undertake ongoing screening of injured people in its guidance and standards, including Standard of Practice 33 (managing psychological injury claims) and 34 (return to work and early intervention).

“The use of standardised outcome measures is a key component in SIRA's mission to deliver value-based healthcare in the schemes. These measures respond to Streams 1 and 2 in the implementation plan to measure health outcomes and costs and support enhanced clinical practice,” SIRA said in a statement. “SIRA will continue to develop and publish more standardised outcome measures for healthcare providers.”