Growlife Medical wins PenCS award for patient centred care

The PenCS awards serve to celebrate data-driven quality improvement in general practice and Aboriginal Medical Services, acknowledging the continuous hard work and achievements of primary health care in Australia.

“Winners demonstrated excellence using evidence-based insights to improve patient care in general practice and Aboriginal Member Services. We also acknowledge the Primary Health Networks and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations who work with them to drive these outcomes,” said PenCS CEO Edweana Wenkart.

After having profits swallowed by backdated payroll tax because of government change to GP tax requirements, Dr Chambers became AMA Queensland’s spokesperson for payroll tax, continuing to advocate for fellow colleagues and patients.

Their efforts include an innovative initiative to target cervical screening through the employment of PenCS software. Through this data-driven initiative, the team use tailored strategies and clinic-wide education efforts to double cervical screening rates.

Lauren Koch, General Practice Pharmacist at Growlife Medical, accepted the award with acknowledgement of the wider teams’ efforts and the continuous, active support from PenCS.

"The Growlife Medical Team are honoured to accept this award. Patient, family, and community are at the heart of what we do at Growlife Medical, across our  four practice locations in Brisbane,” said Lauren Koch.

“Our ‘helicopter-view’ approach to population health allows for data-driven quality improvement projects to be developed based on areas of need within our varied patient populations.

"The ease at which data analysis and review is conducted using the PenCS software is integral to this approach. We thank the PenCS team for this award and providing us the opportunity to showcase our quality improvement projects."

Dr Chambers said he greatly values pharmacists as part of his practices, appreciating the different perspective they are able to bring on the use of medicine.

“Having a pharmacist has really made a difference, and the diversity of thinking has really improved the way we think about our patient population,” he said.

“Lauren Koch has taken the lead in our population health team, so she has that time out of the consulting range to really think broadly about issues affecting not just individuals, but also the health of our families and communities.

“I have seen Lauren and Jessica Cartwright, our dietician, really pursue that goal, and that’s the reason we have won this award.”