Teaching, Training and Research classification development
Teaching, Training and Research Working Group
IHACPA established the Teaching, Training and Research Working Group (TTRWG) in February 2013 to develop a work program on approaches to the classification and costing of teaching, training and research activities undertaken within public hospitals. The TTRWG has a broad membership, including jurisdictional representatives from state, territory and Commonwealth health departments, professional bodies, higher education (including those representing rural interests) and research.
Establishing a data collection
National data collections are essential to the development of classifications and the implementation of activity based funding. IHACPA develops the Data Set Specifications (DSS) in accordance with national health data standards, working in consultation with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the National Health Data and Information Standards Committee.
In December 2013, the Hospital Teaching and Training Activities DSS 2014-15 was endorsed by the National Health Information Standards and Statistics Committee as a nationally recognised DSS. During development of this DSS, it was decided that research should initially be excluded until a better understanding of the drivers of research costs was available.
A 'research activities cluster' was added to later versions of the DSS to be collected on a best endeavours basis to explore potential cost drivers. This led to the release of the Hospital Teaching, Training and Research Activities DSS in 2015.
Definitions and cost drivers project
The initial step in the TTR work program was to:
- develop a set of nationally agreed definitions for teaching, training and research
- identify and analyse cost drivers for teaching, training and research
- produce a classification development framework which considers the ways in which identified cost drivers could be grouped in meaningful ways that explained resource usage.
IHACPA engaged a consultant to undertake this work and the outcomes of this consultancy underpinned IHACPA's advice to the COAG Health Council. This project formed the basis for IHACPA's work on classification, counting, costing and pricing processes for teaching, training and research. Read more about the definitions here. Read more about the definitions here.
Teaching, training and research costing study
In September 2015, IHACPA engaged a consortium to undertake a six-month costing study in 19 public hospitals across Australia. The TTR costing study commenced from May 2015 and data collection was completed in October 2015.
Data collected from the study has informed the development of the Australian Teaching Training Classification (ATTC) Version 1.0.
The final report for the TTR costing study was released in September 2016.
Classification development
With the development process now finalised, IHACPA has released the ATTC Version 1.0 effective 1 July 2018.