The Queensland Health Outcomes Framework was designed to humanise healthcare measures, by focusing on what matters to people, especially priority population groups such as First Nations people, Older Persons, People Living with a Disability, Children, Adolescents and Young Adults.Its goal is to reduce health inequities and improve outcomes by reorienting the current system to better identify, evaluate, visualise, understand, and connect health outcomes, indicators, and measures through the viewpoints of these priority populations.
To achieve this equity-based vision, the framework was based on a systematic review and collation of a multitude of interconnected policies and strategies with a core goal to map, redesign, and optimise the measurement and monitoring of health outcomes and indicators. By embedding equity at its core, the framework ensures that healthcare services are patient-centred, responsive, and reflective of the unique needs of diverse populations and priority groups.
A key component within the framework is the Health Outcomes Atlas, which provides an innovative way to categorise and view health outcomes through multiple priority lenses of either priority populations or health systems domains. An example is elective surgery, where timely delivery within clinically recommended timeframes directly improves patient outcomes. Viewing this through the lens of equity ensures that all patients, regardless of their background or circumstances have access to timely and high-quality surgical care. This may also highlight how effective current efforts and investment are impacting on addressing inequalities and inequities, informing a more tailored approach specific to the unique geographical locations across the state of Queensland.
