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IPCRN Tools for Monitoring Chronic Disease Risk Factors

The ICGP in conjunction with the HSE has developed an audit tool which will assist practices in monitoring the physical health of their practice's active adult patients. This is in relation to the ICGP/HSE project: Making Every Consultation Count (MECC)

MECC audit - This tool provides information on the physical health of all active patients aged 18 or over. Specifically, you will receive information about smoking, BMI, alcohol use and physical activity, as well as other important chronic disease risk factors. This data comes from several places in your system, including the new physical health monitoring tab. The audit will provide a comparison between active adult patients in your practice and active adult patients nationally. This national data consists of aggregated data from all other practices who have used the audit tool. After you introduce any identified quality improvement activities, and run this tool again to see the improvements in your practice, you can use this for your professional competence audit requirements.

The ICGP in conjunction with the HSE has also developed several tools which assist practices to undertake an audit on the Physical Health of patients with Enduring Mental Illness (PHEMI). Enduring mental illnesses (EMIs) here are defined as major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The tools are as follows:

PHEMI finder - The finder gives you a list of active patients aged 18 or over who might have an enduring mental illness (EMI) but have not been coded as such. Patients on this list have been included based on several criteria such as medications-prescribed and free-note entries. A comprehensive list of the inclusion criteria can be seen when you use the finder. The list of patients is in order of most likely to be a patient with an EMI at the top to least likely to be a patient with an EMI at the bottom. You can decide for each patient whether to add them to the PHEMI register and code them appropriately.

PHEMI register - The register will provide you with a list of active patients aged 18 or over who have been coded with an EMI.

PHEMI audit - An audit tool has also been created which provides you with details about the physical health of active patients who are aged 18 or over and coded with an EMI. Information about their smoking status, BMI, alcohol, physical activity and other important chronic disease risk factors are included in the audit. This data comes from several places in your system, including the new physical health monitoring tab. The audit will provide a comparison between EMI patients in your practice and EMI patients nationally. This national data consists of aggregated data from all other practices who have used the audit tool. After you introduce any identified quality improvement activities, and run this tool again to see the improvements in your practice, you can use this for your professional competence audit requirements.