CHADx portal aims to reduce complications of care

VAHI, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) and Safer Care Victoria, is piloting a clinical intelligence system designed to reduce complications of care. The system is based on the Classification of Hospital Acquired Diagnoses (CHADx).

CHADx is a dictionary developed by the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare that captures every complication of in-patient care using routinely reported data. CHADx is the backbone of several Grattan Institute reports highlighting the need to reduce complications of care. The CHADx system has been further expanded to include additional procedures and measures.

With the support of the Department, VAHI has leveraged CHADx to create a secure, web portal that includes every complication, for every patient group, for every acute care hospital in Victoria. These outcomes are reported as cross-hospital comparisons and within hospital quarterly tracking. Outcomes that occur within an acute care admission or within 30 days of discharge are both reported.

In collaboration with the Department and Safer Care Victoria, selected hospitals are using the system to participate in pilots aimed at directly improving clinical outcomes for Victorian patients. The pilots focus on improving the clinical relevance of the data and harnessing ‘pathways to improvement’. This includes links to evidence, guidelines and recommendations from local hospitals with exemplary outcomes as to how improvements can be embedded within existing care processes.

The first pilot addresses transfusions, which are a focus of the Victorian Blood Matters program, National Blood Authority, Australian Red Cross Blood Service and the Choosing Wisely Australia campaign. Access to the CHADx portal is currently being limited to participants in the pilots. Expressions of interest to participate in the pilots are welcome from all Victorian health services and will be processed as the pilots are rolled out.

Learnings from use of the CHADx portal will help inform development of VAHI’s data portal, which we gave an update on in the last issue of VAHI news.

For further information please contact vahi@vahi.vic.gov.au.