Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

FAQs about Priority Focus Areas

Frequently asked questions about our Priority Focus Areas (PFAs).

What are PFAs?

PFAs are SA Health’s top pri­or­i­ties for improv­ing patient out­comes and the health­care sys­tem. Each PFA focus­es on a key theme and aims to deliv­er real improve­ments through short-term projects (usu­al­ly 1 – 2 years). 

To learn more about our cur­rent PFAs, vis­it our PFA webpage. 

How do PFAs work?

Each PFA has an Expert Advi­so­ry Group (EAG), which includes:

  • a Clin­i­cal Lead
  • mem­bers (clin­i­cians, con­sumers and oth­er sub­ject mat­ter experts)
  • project and admin­is­tra­tive staff (Com­mis­sion on Excel­lence and Inno­va­tion in Health (CEIH)).

EAGs steer and deliv­er improve­ments through time-lim­it­ed projects, guid­ed by a defined workplan.

PFAs are spon­sored by an SA Health senior exec­u­tive and sup­port­ed by the CEIH through: 

  • project and admin­is­tra­tive staff to man­age the PFA pro­gram of work
  • advanced data analytics 
  • com­mu­ni­ca­tion strat­e­gy devel­op­ment and management.
Who can be a Clinical Lead and what do they do?

Clin­i­cal Leads are expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sion­als in the PFA’s rel­e­vant field. They show lead­er­ship skills and the abil­i­ty to empow­er oth­ers to dri­ve improve­ment and inno­va­tion collaboratively.

The Clin­i­cal Lead can be a clin­i­cian (med­ical, nurs­ing, allied and sci­en­tif­ic health pro­fes­sion­al) work­ing in either the pub­lic or pri­vate sec­tor. Con­sumers may express inter­est in shar­ing the Clin­i­cal Lead role as co-lead. 

Clin­i­cal Leads works close­ly with the Expert Advi­so­ry Group and the Com­mis­sion on Excel­lence and Inno­va­tion in Health to guide the project and decision-making.

All Clin­i­cal Leads are mem­bers of the Clin­i­cal Coun­cil, the peak clin­i­cal advi­so­ry body which advis­es on statewide clin­i­cal care pri­or­i­ties in South Australia.

Who can be a member of a PFA Expert Advisory Group and what is their role?

Mem­bers are cho­sen for their skills, knowl­edge, expe­ri­ence, and com­mit­ment to sys­tem-wide ser­vice delivery. 

Mem­ber­ship is designed to be diverse with rep­re­sen­ta­tion encour­aged from: 

  • met­ro­pol­i­tan and region­al Local Health Net­works (LHNs)
  • a range of rel­e­vant health disciplines 
  • con­sumers
  • com­mu­ni­ty and acute care sectors
  • Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander communities
  • cul­tur­al­ly and lin­guis­ti­cal­ly diverse communities
  • acad­e­mia and oth­er rel­e­vant exter­nal stakeholders.

Mem­bers con­tribute to the devel­op­ment, imple­men­ta­tion, and eval­u­a­tion of the Expert Advi­so­ry Group’s activities.

They col­lect and share per­spec­tives from their peers, pro­vide feed­back to col­leagues and LHN lead­ers, and help shape ini­tia­tives and pri­or­i­ties across the system.

Who is a consumer, support person or community member?

Con­sumers are peo­ple who use or may use health­care services. 

A sup­port per­son pro­vides care or assis­tance with health­care ser­vices to some­one — such as a par­ent, part­ner, child or friend — who has a dis­abil­i­ty, chron­ic con­di­tion, frailty or men­tal illness. 

Con­sumers, sup­port per­sons and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers involved in a PFA are not cur­rent­ly work­ing, nor have pre­vi­ous­ly worked, as a health pro­fes­sion­al in the clin­i­cal area rel­e­vant to the network. 

What level of commitment is required?

Meet­ing fre­quen­cy is set by the Clin­i­cal Lead, but month­ly meet­ings are proposed. 

Mem­bers may also be asked to:

  • attend addi­tion­al forums or plan­ning sessions 
  • par­tic­i­pate in work­ing groups to progress time-sen­si­­tive work
  • com­plete some out-of-ses­­sion tasks that arise from meetings. 

Mem­bers are expect­ed to attend at least 75% of meetings.

Will I be paid for my time?

Clin­i­cal Leads: 

  • SA Health employ­ees: The CEIH sup­ports back­fill for the Clin­i­cal Lead at 0.2 full-time equiv­a­lent (FTE) basis. The day and hours are flex­i­ble and will be nego­ti­at­ed once an offer of appoint­ment has been made.
  • Non-SA Health clin­i­cians and con­sumers/​car­ers: Remu­ner­a­tion will be nego­ti­at­ed with the CEIH Executive.

Oth­er Expert Advi­so­ry Group members:

Can I apply if I live and work in a regional or rural area?

Yes. Region­al and rur­al clin­i­cians and con­sumers are encour­aged to apply.

Will an online option be available for meetings?

Yes. Mem­bers can attend meet­ings online or in per­son. Those join­ing vir­tu­al­ly are respon­si­ble for ensur­ing they are in a pri­vate loca­tion where infor­ma­tion can remain con­fi­den­tial as required. 

What is the term of appointment for Expert Advisory Group members?

Mem­bers are appoint­ed for the life of the work program.

What other opportunities are there to be involved with the PFA?

There may be oppor­tu­ni­ties to par­tic­i­pate in work­ing groups that may be estab­lished to progress time-lim­it­ed pieces of work.