Benefits of accreditation for your practice AND your staff

Your patients aren’t the only ones benefitting from your practice’s achievement of accreditation! Not only does AGPAL accreditation mean that your practice is meeting minimum safety and quality standards, but AGPAL accreditation also unlocks many opportunities for your practice and your staff.

AGPAL is proud to be the only general practice accreditation provider to offer all of these professional development points opportunities and the Department of Health incentives.

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Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) – Practice Stream incentives

While general practice accreditation is voluntary, general practices wanting to access the Department of Health’s Practice Incentives Program (PIP) or the Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) – Practice Stream must be assessed by an approved accrediting agency. AGPAL is proud to be an approved accreditation agency.

If your practice meets the PIP eligibility requirements, the Department of Health offers a range of incentives in various areas including Quality Improvement Incentive, After Hours Incentives, eHealth Incentive, Indigenous Health Incentive, and more.

Upon successful application, your practice will receive quarterly payments to help with future improvements. The payment amount varies depending on the information provided in the application.

PIP payments can be used to:

• Purchase new equipment for your practice
• Upgrade your practice’s facilities, and/or
• Increase the pay for practitioners working your practice.

Most relevant to accreditation is the Quality Improvement Incentive (PIP QI). The PIP QI is a payment specific to general practices that partake in quality improvement activities, such as accreditation, with the intention to improve patient outcomes and deliver best practice. Eligibility for PIP QI requires submitted proof of on-going quality improvement initiatives to your local Primary Health Network (PHN).

For more information on PIP, eligibility, application, and payments, visit the Services Australia website.

Practice manager CPD points and hours

A practice manager’s role requires the ability to wear multiple hats throughout the workweek, juggle numerous skills, and much more. It’s important that all of the valuable time is rewarded!

Practice managers can gain up to 20 CPD points Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) members are eligible for up to per accreditation cycle following the achievement of AGPAL accreditation.

Classified as an external educational program, to add their points AAPM members need to:

• Log in and use their self-service area of the AAPM website “My Membership”
• Add the points manually
• A copy of their general practice’s AGPAL accreditation certificate must be to AAPM with a log evidencing the time the Practice Manager has invested in the accreditation process.

Practice nurse CPD hours

With over 14,000 general practice nurses, over 5000 AGPAL accredited general practices, and over 60% of practices employing at least one nurse – there are more than 8000 practice nurses eligible for CPD points through AGPAL!

Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) members can claim up to 15 CPD hours for their involvement in the AGPAL accreditation process.

To gain these points, APNA requires:

• The submission of the practice’s AGPAL accreditation certificate once accreditation has been achieved, and
• A declaration of the practice nurse’s involvement in the accreditation process from their general practice.

It is important to follow the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) guidelines when recording CPD activity.

GP CPD hours

GPs often find it difficult to allocate their time effectively within their practices. How can a GP find the time to attain their RACGP CPD hours? Or those ACRRM CPD hours? By contributing to your practice’s AGPAL accreditation, not only does the participating GP assist with providing continuous quality improvement, they are eligible for GP CPD hours.

GPs are eligible for the following, regarding their contribution to their practice’s AGPAL accreditation process:

• Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) CPD hours
• Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) CPD hours

To ensure hours are allocated appropriately, each GP should

• Provide their RACGP/ACRRM membership number in the ‘Practice Profile’ within their AGPAL accreditation hub during the self-assessment process.
• Ensure their name is entered exactly as it appears on their RACGP/ACRRM registration details.

Once this is completed and accreditation with AGPAL is achieved, AGPAL submits a report to the RACGP/ACRRM for allocation.

Other

As Australia’s leading general practice accreditation provider, our team works to ensure your practice receives on-going, personalised support while having access to a range of resources and programs to assist along your accreditation journey.

Our personal Client Liaison Officers in combination with our highly trained, industry-experienced Surveyors, hold an in-depth knowledge of general practice and the RACGP Standards 5th edition. They will assist your team every step of the way from registration to accreditation and throughout your three-year accreditation cycle.

In addition to our personalised support, AGPAL’s accreditation hub is tailored to each practice’s individual accreditation timelines and framework requirements. Our accreditation hub houses a detailed yet simple-to-use document management system allowing your team to upload multiple pieces of evidence at one time and keep track of document version and review dates.

AGPAL’s education and resource library offers over 300 tools, resources, and education offerings, with templates, posters, and customisable registers and policies – including a Policy and Procedure Manual created specifically for practices accrediting with the RACGP Standards 5th edition.

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of general practice accreditation for your practice or your patients, simply get in touch with a member of our team to discuss in detail.