The Quality Improvement Program Planning System (QIPPS)
What is QIPPS?
QIPPS is a web-based planning and evaluation tool that enables subscribers to develop high quality health promotion and community development project plans by following a guided process for effective planning and evaluation.
The tool is designed to foster an evidence-based planning and evaluation process and support documenting of the project or organisational plan. QIPPS includes definitions and explanatory information, research material, references and other sources of data in the form of hyperlinks to important websites. Projects can easily be saved as Microsoft Word documents, which can then be edited for different purposes.
QIPPS is also made up of several libraries containing the projects that have been developed using the QIPPS system, such as the Public Library and Subscriber Library. These libraries allow planners to compare strategies of projects addressing similar health and social issues. Projects within the Public Library are freely accessible on the web and have been peer-reviewed by the QIPPS team. The Subscriber Library, visible only to subscribers of QIPPS, contains abstracts of projects and includes contact information for project authors to encourage communication within the industry.
Who uses QIPPS?
QIPPS is primarily designed for the planning and evaluation of health promotion community development, social action and capacity building projects. However, many organisations are additionally using QIPPS to plan other projects such as secondary prevention and quality-related projects.
With over 150 subscribers and counting, QIPPS is widely used throughout Australia and New Zealand in organisations such as; Community Health Services, Primary Care Partnerships, Primary Health Organisations, Public Health Services, Non-Government Organisations and Education Institutions.
Following on from a successful pilot of QIPPS with Auckland-based Primary Health Organisations, the Ministry of Health has provided funding to allow free access to QIPPS for all Primary Health Organisations and Public Health Units in New Zealand.
The history of QIPPS
QIPPS was initially developed by Mitchell Community Health Service (Victoria, Australia) in 2000 and until January 2009, was owned and managed by the Victorian Community Health Association (VCHA).
QIPPS is now proudly managed by Merri Community Health Services (MCHS), a not-for-profit organisation in Victoria with a passion for health promotion.
The terminology of QIPPS
The language used in the QIPPS system is consistent with World Health Organisation health promotion language. This language embraces principles of community participation, ownership of the process, and the idea that access to material resources, meaningful relationships and participation in society (eg. money and housing) are key contributors to health.
Consequently, the QIPPS framework assumes that health is the responsibility of everyone and not just the health sector.
The technical side of QIPPS
QIPPS is extremely simple to use. Many of our subscribers are self-confessed 'techno-phobes' and work within the system easily. Most subscribers can get underway with a short induction and QIPPS provides access to a helpdesk facility at no extra charge for all subscribers. We also have cheat-sheets and troubleshooting tips available on the website which are updated regularly.
Being a web-based tool, no costly software installations are required. All that is needed is an internet connection and the QIPPS website can be accessed using Microsoft Internet Explorer (v5 and above), and other common web-browsers such as Firefox and Safari.
Project content can be exported at the touch of a button to a Microsoft Word document that is suitable for reporting purposes.