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About AROC

About AROC

The Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) is the national rehabilitation medicine integrated outcomes centre of Australia and New Zealand. It is a joint initiative of the Australian rehabilitation sector (providers, funders, regulators and consumers).


Membership

Explore the four steps to becoming a member of AROC


Governance

Learn about the AROC Management Advisory Group


Outputs

Discover AROC's outputs and reporting processes

AROC has been driving quality and outcome improvements in rehabilitation since 2002

The Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) is the national rehabilitation medicine integrated outcomes centre of Australia and New Zealand. It is a joint initiative of the Australian rehabilitation sector (providers, funders, regulators and consumers). It commenced operation on 1 July 2002. With the support of its industry partners, AROC was established by the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM) of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). A business plan for AROC to run as a not-for-profit self-funding organisation was developed by an AROC Planning Group, consisting of representatives from across the sector.

 

The aims of AROC are to:

  • Develop a national benchmarking system to improve clinical rehabilitation outcomes in both the public and private sectors.
  • Produce information on the efficacy of interventions through the systematic collection of outcomes information in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings.
  • Develop clinical and management information reports based on functional outcomes, impairment groupings and other relevant variables that meet the needs of providers, payers, consumers, the States/Commonwealth and other stakeholders in both the public and private rehabilitation sectors.
  • Provide and coordinate ongoing education, training and certification in the use of the FIM and other outcome measures.
  • Provide annual reports that summarise the Australasian data.
  • Develop research proposals to refine the selected outcome measures over time.

AROC has its own Management Advisory Group consisting of representatives from across the sector. A Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee was established to advise AROC on clinical and scientific issues. Stakeholders can have a direct say in the ongoing development of the Centre through their representatives on these committees.

AROC is supported by AFRM. AFRM appointed AHSRI at the University of Wollongong to manage AROC on its behalf and to undertake the day to day management of AROC.

AROC was established with funding from seven founding members. These foundation members contributed funds during AROC's establishment phase. AROC is currently funded by a combination of a Subscription model and a User Pays model. Members of AROC pay an annual subscription fee for which they receive several core services. AROC also provides additional services on a User Pays basis.

 

The AFRM appointed AHSRI at the University of Wollongong to manage AROC on its behalf and to undertake the day to day management of AROC. An AHSRI representative sits on the AROC Management Advisory Group in its data manager capacity. As a legal entity, the University of Wollongong provides infrastructure and corporate support services. Through AHSRI, AROC has access to the University's Ethics Committee.

 

AROC commenced operation in 2002 with seven founding members. Each foundation member appointed its own representative to the AROC Management Advisory Group. The seven foundation members were:

Since establishment, the majority of rehabilitation units (public and private) in Australia and New Zealand have joined AROC. In addition, a number of other interested stakeholders have joined. View the current AROC membership list.

 

Rehabilitation units who are members of AROC submit a prescribed data set, the AROC data set, against every episode of rehabilitation in their service. AROC members have access to online, face-to-face, and virtual support through every stage:

Development:

  • AROC collaborates with members, clinical experts, and researchers to develop datasets across the continuum of rehabilitation from inreach rehabilitation, through inpatient rehabilitation and ambulatory/home rehabilitation.

Collection:

AROC provides a purpose-built online portal, AROC Online Services (AOS), which enables data-submitting members to:

  • Securely submit their own data (upload or direct data entry) for both inpatient and ambulatory, adult and paediatric, data sets
  • Access a summary of the submitted data to ensure their submitted data is complete
  • Access an audit report of their data to see where there are errors that need correcting
  • FIM credentialing: download FIM credentialing reports; purchase and manage exam keys; complete online refreshers and exams; access and download educational resources

Analysis and reporting:

  • Through AOS members can:
  • Access Live data analysis of their data via the online app
  • Download service based biannual suite of benchmark reports including dashboard, impairment specific reports, infographic, outcome target and general service level reports. These provide analyses comparing the service’s data with National data from all other participating services and include five year time series trends
  • Generate data for other purposes such as ACHS Clinical Indicator reports and AN-SNAP HCP extracts
  • Extract their own data as submitted with calculated fields added (such as age, length of stay, FIM change, AN-SNAP class, etc)

Support:

  • AROC runs benchmarking workshops for dissemination of results, information, research findings, networking and collaboration between services.
  • Individual service meetings, run by AROC improvement facilitators, provide an opportunity for services to discuss their data and outcomes with AROC and identify target areas for quality improvement initiatives.
  • AROC provides FIM training to services directly and through the training of FIM facility trainers. This ensures services’ FIM data is accurate and consistent, both internally and externally with other services. Member facilities receive significant discounts for training conducted by AROC FIM Master Trainers. Resources and ongoing support are provided for all FIM facility trainers and FIM clinicians.
  • Access to AROC improvement facilitators who can provide support on data collection processes, report interpretation and quality improvement initiatives.
  • Access to the AROC national dataset (upon application) for research purposes
  • The AROC website (also available to non-members) provides a range of resources including:

 

AROC collects and reports on data from the specialist medical rehabilitation sector. Rehabilitation is typically provided as part of a broader episode that may include primary, acute and home and community care. AROC is committed to reviewing emerging models of care and expanding the area of impact and collection, and linking data to other episodes of care, in order to measure and understand the role of rehabilitation within the broader health and community care systems.

Benefits to People undertaking rehabilitation  & Clinicians

AROC exists to enrich people’s lives, striving to improve their rehabilitation outcomes. Since AROC’s inception, through analysis of outcomes data, we have demonstrated a consistent improvement in inpatient rehabilitation outcomes across services in both Australia and New Zealand. AROC provides clinicians with data they can use at point of care to plan and guide a patient’s rehabilitation episode. Once a patient is admitted, clinicians can use AROC data to provide an expected length of stay and expected functional improvement based on thousands of similar patient’s rehabilitation episodes. This gives clinicians and rehabilitation teams a data informed foundation to discuss with the patient and their family/carers and outline what to expect from their rehabilitation stay. 

Benefits to Jurisdictions & Organisations

AROC conducts jurisdictional (e.g. statewide, organisation) based quality forums/workshops where the jurisdictions data is benchmarked against the rest of their country. These events enable individual services to benchmark themselves against their peers and to engage in peer discussions about effective rehabilitation interventions/services. Additionally, individual services are encouraged to present quality initiatives they have undertaken to the group, some of which then become case studies which are shared with all member services. AROC provides biannual reports to member organisations detailing the overall data for the previous calendar or financial year as well as how individual services are performing against each other and the rest of their country.

Benefits to the wider sector & National/International research

Since its establishment, AROC has been active in the National and International research sectors. As such AROC has been able to generate original research which ultimately contributes to the evidence that will support best practice in the care of people through rehabilitation. It is here at this final point where the benefits are in fact returned to the patient.

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What is rehabilitation?

An introductory video explaining rehabilitation, developed by Training Centre in Subacute Care (TRACS)

This video has been developed to help you understand what to expect should you need inpatient rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is often needed following an accident, illness or surgery, and often takes place initially at a hospital. Rehabilitation is part of the journey back to independence, and your family and friends are encouraged to be part of the process.

Being independent as much as possible is important. We will work with you to set goals for your rehabilitation journey. Think about what you need to be able to do to leave hospital safely. Talk with your family about your goals. Your early goals may include getting back on your feet, showering, dressing, or making a cup of tea.

Many different people are involved in your rehab journey. Your doctors look after your medical needs while you’re on the program. Nurses support and assist you to care for yourself. Everyday tasks like showering and dressing, sitting out of bed and walking to the bathroom, are integral to your rehabilitation. Physiotherapists help you improve your strength, balance and fitness to get you moving again. Occupational therapists work with you to improve your independence, with activities such as personal care and home tasks. We will teach you how to use equipment to be as independent as possible. We will review your home set-up if needed. Allied health assistants and nursing assistants help you to do your exercises and everyday activities. Other support staff include ward clerks, food services, and patient support assistants. You may see a social worker, speech pathologist, dietician, pharmacist, and a phlebotomist, who will take blood for testing.

Each member of the team is there to guide you towards your goals, but the real work comes from you. Some of the things you can do while you’re in the hospital to help your progress include participate in all tasks which you would normally do for yourself, be out of bed during the day as much as you are able, get dressed in your day clothes, practice the exercises and technique you have learnt, move out of your bedroom during the day, have lunch in the patient lounge, join the group in the gym or courtyard, and go outside with your family on the weekend.

We want you to reach your goals and will help you to solve challenges on the way that may hold you back. It is important that you let us know if you are having any difficulties. Remember, you can continue to work on your goals once you leave the hospital.

So, in summary, here are some important things to remember. Generate goals and begin an action plan. Participate in all tasks that you would normally do yourself such as showering, bathing and getting dressed. Practice the exercises and techniques you have learned. Be out of bed as much as you are able and be as active as possible. Move out of your room during the day and go outside when you can. Continuing support is always available to help in your recovery, remember to talk to your keyworker and other staff.