Advance Care Planning
WellSouth is committed to supporting advance care planning. Feedback in the past from practices is that Advance Care Plans (ACP’s), done well, take time to complete and upload. This programme is in recognition of this feedback, acknowledging the time and effort to complete these plans with your patients and uploading them to HealthOne. By recognising this effort WellSouth is encouraging more practices to make a team effort to ensure their patients’ voice is heard during critical health events.
To ensure plans both reflect the patient needs and are clinically interpretable, all plans are reviewed by clinicians with additional training in Advance Care Planning before being published in our shared South Island system - HealthOne. Once reviewed and published, you can rest assured your patient’s plan is on record and available to other health providers across the South Island.
We encourage you to invite patients to have these conversations with their family/whānau and utilise your full team to help them with these conversations. Health Improvement Practitioners and Health Coaches can be valuable resources to help your patients gain their voice and understand the role of advance care planning.
To support you and your team, we have our dedicated coordinator, Shared Care Plan Coordinator Michelle Anderson, on hand. Michelle can call in and provide training to enable your team to feel confident about completing the process. In the meantime, these steps take you through the minimum requirements for an ACP and this link takes you through uploading the ACP onto HealthOne.
Once you have completed these steps and both you and your patient are satisfied with the ACP you can submit a claim to WellSouth via the WellSouth Portal if your patient is part of the eligible cohort. Once it is published your claim will be eligible to be paid.
Meet Michelle
I began my nursing career later in life after many years in office administration/management, primarily in the insurance and accounting fields. After having a family, I decided that a new challenge was needed.
Since qualifying as a Registered Nurse, I have been focussed on primary health as a Practice Nurse and then as a long-terms conditions nurse with WellSouth before moving into the Shared Care Plan Coordinator Nurse and HPV team lead roles.
My interest in Advance Care Plans was brought about due to personal reasons when my family needed to go through the process. A well done Advance Care Plan can be empowering and bring peace to families who then know that when the time comes their loved one’s voice will be heard.
I am very happy to answer any questions, either by phone or email and would love to meet face-to-face if that is your preferred option.
I can be reached at advancecareplanning@wellsouth.org.nz or 022 321 5899.
Meet Helen
I have been a registered nurse all my working career. Since 1992 I have worked in Specialist Palliative Care services, and for some time, I have been immersed in Advance Care Planning (ACP) processes. This began with a need to seek more information for my nursing practice which would enable me to be in a better position to support the people and families/ whānau I work with. This, in turn, led to a wider interest in the systems and processes related to ACP.
I have a deep understanding of care planning and coordination. I have successfully collaborated with healthcare professionals, patients, and their families/ whānau to develop comprehensive care plans that address individual needs. I am delighted to have joined Michelle Anderson in the Shared Care Coordinator role.
I am based in Dunedin, with Michelle working from the Invercargill office. Together we cover the Southern region. Alongside Michelle, I am available to respond to any teams who require support and advice related to Advance Care Planning, as well as shared care planning systems, education and individual care plan conversations.
I can be reached at advancedplanning@wellsouth.org.nz or 0272104716.
Programme Sheet
Check out the programme sheet will full details: Advance Care Plan Programme Sheet
Completing an Advance Care Plan
Follow our step-by-step guide for completing an Advance Care Plan: Steps for completing an Advance Care Plan
Uploading an Advance Care Plan
Follow our step-by-step guide for uploading an Advance Care Plan: Steps for uploading an Advance Care Plan