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This report details the development of a prototype classification and funding model for community transport providers in NSW. The research was conducted by the Centre for Health Service Development, within the Australian Health Services Research Institute at the University of Wollongong, in partnershipwith and funded by Community Transport Organisation (CTO), the peak body for community transport providers in NSW. The project was commissioned by CTO in March 2022 in response to concerns from the sector around future funding stability under the payment in arrears model that has been proposed by the Australian Government in the ‘Support at Home Program’.

BACKGROUND: Very few measures are used successfully as part of routine care within national palliative care outcome programs. Only a handful of studies examine these measures. The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity of a measure used in a national outcomes program: the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration Symptom Assessment Scale (PCOC SAS).METHODS: A retrospective multi-site cohort study with secondary analysis of routinely collected patient-level data to assess PCOC SAS's internal consistency, construct validity, reliability, interpretability, acceptability and sensitivity. The analyses used two sets, with data collected by inpatient and community palliative care services registered with the Australian national PCOC.RESULTS: Dataset one included 1,117 patients receiving palliative care from 21 services. Dataset two included 5,294 patients receiving palliative care from 119 PCOC services. PCOC SAS demonstrated the ability to detect and discriminate distress by palliative care phase, functional status and diagnosis. Excellent and good convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated. Fair through to substantial inter-rater and intra-rater reliability levels were evidenced. Sufficient interpretability resulted along with necessary levels of acceptability and sensitivity.CONCLUSION: PCOC SAS is a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome measure suitable for use in routine clinical care with patients requiring palliative and or end-of-life care, including in national outcomes programs.

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is a national program that aims to improve the quality and outcomes of palliative care in Australia. This is achieved via a standardised clinical language that supports a national data collection. This report provides a high level profile of 4,931 patients who received palliative care in Queensland during July to December 2019 and had their pain, symptom, family / carer and psychological / spiritual issues assessed as part of routine clinical care.

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is a national program that aims to improve the quality and outcomes of palliative care in Australia. This is achieved via a standardised clinical language that supports a national data collection. This report provides a high level profile of 26,586 patients who received palliative care during July to December 2019 and had their pain, symptom, family / carer and psychological / spiritual issues assessed as part of routine clinical care.

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is a national program that aims to improve the quality and outcomes of palliative care in Australia. This is achieved via a standardised clinical language that supports a national data collection. This report provides a high level profile of 2,204 patients who received palliative care in South Australia during July to December 2019 and had their pain, symptom, family / carer and psychological / spiritual issues assessed as part of routine clinical care.

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is a national program that aims to improve the quality and outcomes of palliative care in Australia. This is achieved via a standardised clinical language that supports a national data collection. This report provides a high level profile of 8,032 patients who received palliative care in Victoria during July to December 2019 and had their pain, symptom, family / carer and psychological / spiritual issues assessed as part of routine clinical care.