Circular details

Recording non-admitted outpatient activity for Rehabilitation in The Home (RITH)

This Operational Directive is applicable to all public hospitals and Health Services in Western Australia (WA) that provide services currently known as Rehabilitation in The Home (RITH).

The purpose of this Operational Directive is to advise Health Services of the requirement that from 1 July 2013, all RITH activity must be managed and recorded using an approved metropolitan patient administration system (PAS): TOPAS or webPAS.

To ensure compliance with the reporting requirements of the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA), the Admission, Readmission, Discharge and Transfer (ARDT) Policy for WA Health Services and the implementation of Activity Based Funding and Management (ABF/M), a decision was reached to reclassify RITH services as non-admitted outpatient activity.

The RITH Service Redesign Steering Group (SRSG) was established in December 2012 to affect this change by 1 July 2013.  Suitable and approved electronic systems must be used to enable reporting for ABF/M. For outpatient clinics that do not use an electronic system, there will be an immediate requirement to adopt a corporate, approved PAS that is supported at a site level. 

The Allied Health System (AHS) currently used to record RITH activity does not provide the range of data elements needed for complete data capture.

In general, the electronic Patient Administration Systems capable of and approved for meeting the essential criteria for capturing non-admitted data are the corporately managed and maintained TOPAS, webPAS and HCARe.

In this context, the RITH SRSG has endorsed the use of TOPAS or webPAS for the recording of RITH data at metropolitan sites in order to meet local and national reporting requirements.

Professor Bryant Stokes
A/DIRECTOR GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH WA