Care plans help you coordinate care and reduce ad hoc consultations. They’re useful for recording comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information about a patient’s condition and treatment. Developing a care plan can also help patients identify things they could do to achieve the treatment goals.
If your patient has a health care plan for chronic condition, you can deliver care plan services using any of the following:
- GP chronic condition management plan (GPCCMP)
- Multidisciplinary case conference (MCC).
If your patient has a health care plan for an eating disorder, you can deliver care plan services using any of the following:
- Eating disorder treatment and management plan (EDP)
- Mental health case conference (MHCC).
If your patient has a health care plan for mental health, you can deliver care plan services using any or the following:
- GP mental health treatment plan (GPMHTP)
- Mental health case conference (MHCC).
You can lookup patient eligibility for Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) item numbers through the MBS items online checker in Health Professional Online Services (HPOS).
Learn about MBS item descriptions, fact sheets and explanatory notes on the MBS Online website.
You can view a patient’s care plan history in HPOS.
When preparing a GPCCMP you should:
- explain the steps involved in preparing the plan to your patient
- record their agreement to proceed.
Then write a plan that describes:
- your patient’s health care needs, health problems and relevant conditions
- management goals and actions for your patient
- the treatment and services your patient will need
- arrangements for providing the treatment and services
- arrangements to review the GPCCMP.
Once your patient agrees to their GPCCMP, offer them a copy and add a copy to their medical record.
When coordinating the MHCC, discuss all of the following with your patient:
- The steps involved in developing the MHCC.
- The multidisciplinary team who’ll contribute to the MHCC and provide treatments and services.
- Your patient’s agreement to proceed, noting their response in their medical records.
When documenting the MHCC, include:
- treatment and service goals for your patient
- treatment and services that collaborating health professionals have agreed to
- actions for your patient
- review dates.
Once you’ve completed the MHCC document:
- offer a copy of it to your patient
- give copies of the relevant parts of the document to collaborating health professionals
- add a copy of the document to your patient’s medical record.