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The introduction of casemix across Australia: Implementation issues for occupational therapists
Author(s) -
Williams Susan,
Shah Surya
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1630.1995.tb01329.x
Subject(s) - commonwealth , rehabilitation , occupational therapy , psychological intervention , nursing , medicine , health care , medical education , political science , physical therapy , law
The Commonwealth and State governments are committed to micro‐economic reform in the Australian health industry with casemix being the basis of this reform. Casemix was introduced in Victoria in 1993/1994 and in South Australia in 1994/1995. While a great deal has been written about casemix, relatively little published data exist on the implications of casemix for occupational therapy. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of casemix, its benefits and the controversy surrounding its introduction. The changes required by occupational therapists to adapt to a casemix based system are also discussed. The future directions will involve: further refinement of the structure of the data set for patient care, examination of the impact of casemix on student training and research, the relationship between budget cuts and impact on hospital based rehabilitation services, the determination of appropriate ‘outcomes' of occupational therapy interventions, and issues surrounding early discharge of patients and their continuing care in the community.