Service Coordination

About Service Coordination

The Department of Human Services introduced the Service Coordination Model and Better Access to Services Strategy in 2001 with a vision to align practices, processes, protocols and systems through functional integration. Service Coordination places consumers at the centre of service delivery, to ensure they have access to the services they need opportunities for early intervention and health promotion and improved health outcomes. Service coordination is facilitated by Primary Care Partnerships where agencies come together to agree on how they will coordinate their services so that consumers experience a health system that works together.

The reasons why service coordination is being undertaken, the principles that guide service coordination as well as the way to improve service coordination in Victoria have been described in the key document Better Access to Services: A Policy and Operational Framework.

A cornerstone of service coordination is the collection and sharing of consumer information according to agreed protocols. Local protocol development work evolved into the Victorian Service Coordination Practice Manual, embedding the Service Coordination Tool Templates (SCTT) into agency procedures, and the introduction and increased use of eReferral.

Campaspe PCPs Service Coordination Steering Committee has four priority areas for action in its current 2009-2012 plan. These include;

1. Increasing care coordination practice - all organisations to be using care planning processes to enhance intra and inter agency care planning
2. Embedding Services Coordination practice - all organisations will implement the Service Coordination framework for initial contact, needs identification, referral assessment and care planning
3. Integrating Chronic Disease Management - all organisations will improve their practice to support diabetes chronic disease management
4. GPs and Private Practitioners - improve communication with GPs and Private Practitioners for referral, feedback and care planning
5. Implement good practice pathways.