Health information management leadership in activity based funding: the past, present and future

My involvement in activity-based funding (ABF) began in 1989 as a project manager for the first hospital-based case mix and costing project conducted in Queensland. The project was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and situated in Brisbane South, Queensland. The project involved the Princess Alexandra, Logan, Redland, and Beaudesert Hospitals. The hospitals in the project ranged from a large tertiary referral hospital to smaller suburban hospitals to what was then regarded as a regional hospital at Beaudesert, now on the fringes of the Gold Coast and Brisbane. The aim of this project was to produce activity and costing information for each of the hospitals and to share knowledge and learnings of how to generate case mix and costing data at the hospital level across Queensland.
This perspective will describe how Health Information Managers (HIMs) have, through their leadership, shaped the past and present of ABF and suggest our role for the future