Reducing Waste and
Low-value Care

Health systems face the challenge of “too much healthcare”, with waste, low-value care, and harm a problem in Australia and around the world. This Research Stream focuses on prioritised and quantified sources of wastage and low-value care as well as the identification and implementation of interventions to address these areas of waste. Specifically, it aims to uncover the main contributors to the growth in “volume of care per case” and to understand which of these contributors constitute the highest priority areas of waste. Further, the Research Stream explores potential solutions to reduce waste in the Australian context and opportunities for disinvestment where interventions do not deliver improved outcomes.

To counter rising levels of unsustainability in healthcare, alternative service models that are cost effective and maintain the quality of care are needed. This Research Stream is concerned with the identification and testing of alternative care delivery models to achieve lower cost delivery services. It explores what processes and healthcare sites have been found to be lower cost, what current evidence reveals about the models they employ, and what gaps in evidence remain for such alternative models. The Research Stream also examines the current levels of usage of these best-practice models and the potential for system gain from their wider adoption.