Chronic Disease Statistics
“In 2020–21, almost half of Australians (47%, or 11.6 million people) were estimated to have one or more of 10 selected chronic conditions (including arthritis, asthma, back problems, diabetes and mental and behavioural conditions). An estimated 20% of people (4.9 million) had 2 or more conditions in 2017–18” (AIHW, 2022).
What does this mean?
If half the population in Australia has at least one chronic condition, providing consistent long-term care may be challenging.
If an active practice population is around 4,000 people, and half of those people have a chronic condition, what measures do practices have in place to be able to provide long-term care to these patients?
Based on a patient population of 4,000, you will need 4,000 CDM appointments. If half of the patient population (2000 patients) have chronic conditions, you need 2,000 appointments per year for Care Plans and 2000 appointments per year for Care Plan Reviews.
This works out to be around 16 CDM appointments per day.
If you know your your total patient numbers, you can apply these calculations to your patient population. Don’t panic if it seems like a lot.
We are going to look at what processes we can put in place to help you provide this long-term care.
Things to consider:
- Number of patients– How many patients with chronic diseases does your practice have?
- Number of appointments– How many chronic disease appointments do you need per day?
- Reminders– By booking the Next Appointment for these patients, you will decrease the amount of admin time needed for monthly recalls.
