Better health and ageing for all Australians

Quality Assurance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Medical Services

Quality Assurance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Medical Services (QAAMS)

The QAAMS program uses Point of Care Testing (PoCT) technology to conduct pathology tests on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes.

Since January 1999 the Department of Health and Ageing has provided funding for “point of care” pathology tests for the monitoring and management of patients with diabetes at participating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services across Australia as part of the QAAMS program.

Expenditure on this program is consistent with the government’s stated strategic priorities in ‘closing the gap’ on indigenous disadvantage in that it will assist in avoiding the poor health outcomes that are associated with unmanaged diabetes in a population where diabetes is diagnosed at an estimated rate of 3.4 times that in the general population.

Many of the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) and Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS) sites participating in the QAAMS program are in rural and remote locations across Australia where there is poor or no access to rapid pathology testing for the management of diabetes in indigenous communities. The QAAMS program overcomes this by providing “point of care” pathology testing with a six minute test time to allow appropriate treatment and management of diabetes while the patient is still present.

The two pathology tests that are currently used in the QAAMS program are;

  • glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) – quantitation in blood, which shows how well glucose levels are being managed; and
  • microalbumin or the albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) – quantitation in urine, which detects early stage renal disease, an adverse outcome of poorly managed diabetes.
A Medicare benefit can be claimed for the two pathology tests performed at participating ACCHS and AMS sites as a “point of care” test only in the QAAMS program though a Medical Practitioner with an indigenous speciality code.

The QAAMS program provides training, technical support, a specifically developed quality assurance program and a consultation program with indigenous leaders to support the point of care pathology testing at participating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care sites so as to improve the management of diabetes in Indigenous communities. The operators of the “point of care” device at participating ACCHS and AMS sites must undertake a competency training program and meet the quality control and assurance program targets before the results are accepted. The QAAMS quality and training framework provided has allowed the participating services to achieve an equivalent quality of pathology testing to that achieved in conventional pathology laboratories.

The Australian Government has provided in the 2009 Budget $3.8 million over four years to expand the number of sites from120 sites in 2008-09 to to 170 sites at the end of the 2012-13 financial year.

The QAAMS program is administered on behalf of the Department by the Flinders University Rural Clinical School and the RCPA Quality Assurance Programs Pty Ltd. More information is available at http://www.qaams.org.au/

For further information about the QAAMS program, contact the Director, Pathology Section, on
(02) 6289 4038.