St John WA's approach to unlocking healthcare insights with data
Based in Western Australia, St John WA is a mixed-billing practice group with a network of seven general practice locations spanning Perth and country WA.
St John WA stand out from traditional practices due to their unique model. Alongside all seven of their medical practices, they also manage after-hours Urgent Care clinics for immediate yet non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries, ensuring patients in their community have access to healthcare.
With a focus on affordability and accessibility, the dedicated team of health professionals at St John WA strives to ensure quality healthcare for all patients.
“Cubiko and Touchstone really streamlined our reporting and made it a lot easier, simpler, and quicker to ensure that we’re effectively managing risk and making informed business decisions.”
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Nicole Crosby, the Quality, Compliance, and Improvement Manager, to understand how the organisation utilises Cubiko’s benchmarking data for its reporting and benchmarking capabilities, to guide business decisions and mitigate risk.
Empowering St John WA through data for practice efficiency and mitigating risk
For St John WA, transitioning from manual reporting to a more streamlined process was essential. Before implementing Cubiko, the reporting process was difficult and time-consuming.
“It was a lot more manual and time-consuming. We built our own spreadsheets and charts from data within our Practice Management System to try to understand what was happening across the practice group, and effectively managing risk,” explains Nicole.
St John WA recognised the need for a solution that could:
- Streamline their processes,
- Offer transparency across the practice group,
- Help reduce risk, and
- Provide quality data for informed decision-making.
St John WA wholeheartedly embraced Cubiko and rolled it out across all seven of their sites, resulting in significant improvements to their reporting procedures. According to Nicole, “Cubiko and Touchstone really streamlined our reporting and made it a lot easier, simpler, and quicker to ensure that we’re effectively managing risk and making informed business decisions.” she continues by saying “Cubiko has everything you need to know to run a practice. Without those figures and numbers, you’ve got no transparency. It’s a window into the practice itself.”
Harnessing benchmarking data for risk management
At St John WA, ensuring adherence to industry standards is of utmost importance. Nicole and Dr Sid Samanta, St John WA’s Head of GP, conduct quarterly clinical audits to assist practitioners in keeping up with industry best practice.
According to Nicole, “Touchstone plays a large role in our GP audits.” These insights provide easy access to industry MBS item usage information, and allows practitioners to review and make informed decisions on their own use of item numbers.
Data-driven decision-making
For Nicole, data is a crucial tool in guiding important practice decisions. After conducting a recent audit of their billing practices across the practice group, St John WA discovered variations in bulk billing rates among their practices.
Nicole reflects on this, stating, “After the practitioners carefully analysed their own billing patterns, and compared it with benchmarking data, they were able to ascertain where their bulk billing rates sat compared with the industry average.” She further explains, “The insights we gained from the data and benchmarks helped us work with our practice teams and the practitioners to find the ideal bulk billing rate for maximising accessibility of care and practice sustainability. This ultimately led to a shift from predominantly bulk billing to mixed billing.”
This shift in billing pattern ensures that St John WA operates financially sustainable practices, allowing them to uphold their commitment to delivering quality care to patients across Perth and country WA.
In her closing remarks, we asked Nicole if she had any advice for her peers within the industry. “I think every practice in Australia should have Cubiko, it’s a no brainer!” She exclaimed.
“Cubiko has everything you need to know to run a practice. Without those figures and numbers, you’ve got no transparency. It’s a window into the practice itself.”