Dunne welcomes mental health, addictions KPI framework development

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne today welcomed the release of Phase III of the Key Performance Indicator Framework for New Zealand Mental Health and Addiction Services.

The Ministry of Health-funded Key Performance Indicator Framework sees mental health and addiction services from district health boards (DHBs) across the country committing to a national quality and performance improvement benchmarking strategy.

All 20 DHBs and a range of non-government organisations (NGOs) have participated in developing the framework, which enables DHBs to benchmark against each other.

‘What is pleasing about this initiative, is that it involves both DHB services and NGOs working together to identify areas of strong performance and areas where improvements can be made,” Mr Dunne said.

“It is about working collaboratively and sharing experience to ensure that the experience of the client is as good as it can be.”

Mr Dunne said that the national benchmarking approach means that if a DHB is doing something that is proving effective and leading to better care for service users, other DHBs have a formal process for learning about it, understanding it, adapting it and, ultimately, embedding it in their service delivery.

An evaluation of the project to date showed promising results, with 90 percent of DHBs noting that service improvements had been evidenced in some way by the KPI data, and 89 percent agreeing that it had improved the overall quality of service delivery to service users.

“These, and other positive results, bode well for the future of this work and its longer term integration into the business-as-usual operation of DHBs as they seek to provide the best possible care for their populations,” Mr Dunne said.

The framework builds on similar work conducted in Australia. The New Zealand programme however, has been designed specifically for New Zealand mental health and addiction services and addresses current important issues in the sector.

The report is available at http://www.ndsa.co.nz/OurServicesWhatWeDo/MentalHealth/KPIFramework.aspx