A qualitative insight into rural casemix education, CHERE Project Report No 10

NSW, while often regarded as the non- Casemix state, has been using Casemix information to assist planning and funding of hospitals. However, the use of this tool and the necessary education and knowledge about Casemix has not been evenly spread throughout the state, with health service staff in metropolitan areas relatively more familiar with its use then their colleagues in rural NSW. In 1998, both NSW Health and the NSW Casemix Clinical Committee (NCCC) proposed that an effort be made to increase the knowledge and participation of rural clinical and health service staff in Casemix activities. This research was proposed as a means of establishing the current situation regarding Casemix, knowledge in rural areas, providing advice regarding the best methods of implementing Casemix education for rural staff and, if possible, evaluating the success of the education. Casemix is a broad term referring to the tools and information system used to assist in such activities as planning, benchmarking, managing and funding health care services. Casemix is underpinned by classification systems that allow meaningful comparisons of workload or throughput between facilities. In this study, qualitative research methods were used to examine the issues faced by rural health service staff in gaining knowledge of and using Casemix. This information was supplemented by a survey, which assessed the level of knowledge and understanding of Casemix in two rural areas.