Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records for All Australians
Australians will be able to check their medical history online through the introduction of personally controlled electronic health records, which will boost patient safety, improve health care delivery, and cut waste and duplication.
11 May 2010
Australians will be able to check their medical history online through the introduction of personally controlled electronic health records, which will boost patient safety, improve health care delivery, and cut waste and duplication.
The $466.7 million investment over the next two years will revolutionise the delivery of healthcare in Australia.
The national e-Health records system will be a key building block of the National Health and Hospitals Network.
This funding will establish a secure system of personally controlled electronic health records that will provide:
- Summaries of patients’ health information – including medications and immunisations and medical test results;
- Secure access for patients and health care providers to their e-Health records via the internet regardless of their physical location;
- Rigorous governance and oversight to maintain privacy; and
- Health care providers with the national standards, planning and core national infrastructure required to use the national e-Health records system.
Benefits for patients
Patients for the first time will be empowered with easy-to-access information about their medical history - including medications, test results and allergies - allowing them to make informed choices about their healthcare.
They will be able to present for treatment anywhere in the country, and give permission for health professionals to access their relevant history at the touch of a button.
Patients will no longer have to remember every detail of their care history and retell it to every care provider they see. Parents will not have to remember the vaccinations their child has had, and doctors and nurses won’t have to thumb through paper records.
Patients will control what is stored on their medical records and will decide which medical professionals can view or add to their files, meaning privacy will be strengthened.
A personally controlled electronic heath record will have two key elements:
- a health summary view including conditions, medications, allergies, and vaccinations; and
- an indexed summary of specific healthcare events.
Benefits for health providers and the health system
Poor availability of health information across care settings can be frustrating and time consuming for patients and health professionals alike.
It can also have damaging effects on a patient’s health outcomes through avoidable adverse drug events and lack of communication between health care providers.
About 2-3 per cent of hospital admissions in Australia are linked medication errors. It equates to 190,000 admissions each year and costs the health system $660 million.
About 8 per cent of medical errors are because of inadequate patient information.
Clear, quickly available information will reduce such incidents, avoid unnecessary tests and save scarce health resources.
Implementation of personally controlled electronic health records
Personally controlled electronic health records will build on the foundation laid by the introduction of the Individual Health Care Identifiers later this year. Under this, every Australian will be given a 16-digit electronic health number, which will only store a patient’s name, address and date-of-birth. No clinical information will be stored on the number, which is separate to an electronic health record.
Implementation will initially target key groups in the community likely to receive the most immediate benefit, including those suffering from chronic and complex conditions, older Australians, Indigenous Australians and mothers and newborn children.
This investment includes funding for the first two years of the individual electronic health record business case developed in consultation with all states and territories and the National Electronic Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).
Subject to progress in rolling out the core e-Health infrastructure, the Government may consider future investments, as necessary, to expand on the range of functions delivered under an electronic health record system.
Reforms to take health system into 21st century
A national e-Health records system was identified as a national priority by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and the draft National Primary Health Care Strategy. It was also supported by the National Preventative Health Strategy.
The Government’s reform plans in primary, acute, aged and community care also require a modern e-Health infrastructure. It is a key foundation stone in building a health system for the 21st century.
A personally controlled electronic health record will not be mandatory to receive health care. For those Australians who do choose to opt in, they will be able to register online to establish a personally controlled e-Health record from 2012-13.
The release is here:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/budget/publishing.nsf/Content/budget2010-hmedia09.htm
Comment later – but I do note there is no mention of leadership, governance or technologies to be used.
David.
9 comments:
This is what Microsoft has been patiently waiting for. It can now launch its world beating personal health record in Australia: HealthVault - A Personal Health Record just for you.
What a Crock!
The usual thing with all of these items is to double it and take it to the next level - so it is 4 years at $4.667 Billion.
A pipe dream. If they cannot put bats in ceelings how can they possibly do this withhealth records.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 6:31:00 AM has missed the point. They don't see that they have to do anything much with health records. What they more than likely see is that it is a fairly straightforward exercise as Wednesday, May 12, 2010 5:23:00 AM said. They will let an organisation like Microsoft do the job.
OK, lets do nothing, and then complain about that too!
Cynicism has a place, but when there is progress - and half a billion e-healht $ is progress, lets just TRY to be balanced.
Shakes head. Wanders off muttering.
The wandering head shaking mutterer said "Cynicism has a place, but when there is progress - and half a billion e-healht $ is progress, lets just TRY to be balanced."
I agree. Let's try to be balanced and objective. And let's also be realistic, pragmatic and responsible. And within those parameters let's ask the HARD questions and not just accept carte blanche that all will be well. Lets make sure the money to be allocated is used wisely and expeditiously. Oh, and one other thing. Let's not forget how much has been spent to-date getting to this point, how it has been spent and what we have got for it.
The eHealth announcements reminded me of the Hall of Mirrors in the Giggle Palace at Luna Park - choose a mirror to get your preferred image - TALLLLL, Short, FAtttttt, thin. This is one big pre-election budget confidence trick.
Pre-election budget? Yes.
Confidence trick? Not really.
I'd rather suggest its pretty much more of the same, with one exception. There is an election coming. Health has been pushed to the top of the political agenda. This ehealth announcement is all designed to stir up the voters into believing we can all have control of our health and our health information just as we have control of our finances and our banking information. Everything electronic, dispatched securely across the internet, stored in a trusted place. Nothing has to be delivered except the rhetoric and politicians everywhere will be given the health script to deliver in their electorates. Most voters will love it because they all know the health system needs fixing. Then, after the election, when back in office ...... the story will change.
Dr. Moore, thanks for your work in promoting better HIT in your part of the world. My purpose in posting to your blog today is to make you aware of a HIT evolution you need to have on your radar screen.
It is increasingly accepted that ontologies are valuable for data mapping that correlates data from disparate sources. Data disparity is endemic to (for example) EMR/EHR due to different systems storing the same data differently.
But finding a company that understands and uses ontologies is not easy. I am aware of a company that has made a significant break-thru with respect to ontological engineering and disease control that is worth note.
It's a small privately held SaaS development company based in Colorado that has developed and deployed an ontologically-based, GIS integrated disease management decision support system in Africa to fight malaria. This is a significant system that was funded by the global combatants of this disease and the system can be rapidly customized for deployment to other disease environments…especially if you are talking about vector-borne disease.
The company, TerraFrame TerraFrame is interested in leveraging its technology to fight global diseases or other problems requiring better decision support systems and is happy to entertain creative conversations to that effect.
For more information please contact Ray Hutchins at rh@terraframe.co
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