The Tasmanian Health Assistance Package (THAP) focused on initiatives to ease pressures and equip Tasmania's health system to meet future challenges. The Commonwealth Government worked with the Tasmanian Government and other key stakeholders to implement the elements of the THAP.
AHA was engaged by the Commonwealth Department of Health to conduct separate evaluations of two major components of the Tasmanian Health Assistance Package (THAP):
- Innovating Care in Emergency Departments (ICED)
- Better Access to Palliative Care (BAPC).
The evaluation of the ICED program aimed to:
- Inform decision-making about ICED program/models to improve their operation, appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency, impact or achievement of objectives
- Facilitate communication with stakeholders, including health professionals and patients
- Identify and report on the achievements of the program against the specified policy objectives including assessment of the extent to which the key design principles were met.
The evaluation of the BAPC program aimed to:
- Identify achievements in terms of best practice, flexibility, innovation and sustainability in service delivery
- Assess the effectiveness in providing:
- Support for existing service models and networks
- Packages of multidisciplinary, home-based care
- Infrastructure support including patient and carer information, capacity building
- Health professional education and professional support for advance care planning.