Ms Roxon Has Just Administered A Severe Shotgun Wound To Her Very Own Foot!

We have just has the announcement of the additional Wave 2 Personally Controlled EHR Sites Announced.

There is coverage here:

Nine new e-health pilots, but doubts linger

• By Michael Woodhead on 29 March 2011
• 0 comments

A further nine new e-health pilot sites and projects have been announced (link) by health minister Nicola Roxon, who says they will bring the personally controlled e-health record a step closer to reality.

The new pilot sites include GP divisions and hospitals, with Brisbane becoming an ‘e-health super site’, as most of the citiy’s divisions and the Mater Hospital involved, the minister says.

“Our 12 e-health lead implementation sites are aiming to have more than half a million Australians enrolled before the national launch of e-health records next year,” Ms Roxon said.

Medibank Private will also be involved in the pilot scheme, with a portal that allows members with chronic diseases to enter data into a ‘Health Book’ that will be shared with health providers. Medibank’s e-health project will also offer electronic health management plans, test results and appointment reminders.

More here:

And here already.

DoHA announces second wave e-health sites

The latest nine sites include maternity at the Mater Hospital, sites in North and South Brisbane and sites across NT, SA and the ACT

• Chloe Herrick (Computerworld)
• 29 March, 2011 12:42

The Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) has unveiled the second wave of e-health implementation sites to deploy and trial specific aspects of the Gillard Government’s $466.7 million personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHR) initiative.

Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, said the announced e-health implementation sites, to join the initial three sites in Brisbane, the Hunter Valley and Melbourne East, was the next step in the Federal Government’s health reform project.

“In these nine projects we can see practical examples of how e-health can improve heath care for patients,” Roxon said in a statement.

The announced sites, include both North and South Brisbane and the maternity unit at the Mater Hospital, as well as sites across the Northern Territory, South Australia and the ACT. The sites will receive a share of $55 million from the project for implementation.

Each site will focus on a particular demographic identified as a high priority for e-health records. Those in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australian will focus on indigenous populations, chronic disease patients will be the focus in western Sydney while the aged care and palliative care patients will become priority at those sites in NSW, the ACT and Tasmania.

“With more than 90 applications received, it’s clear there is a high level of support for e-health," Roxon said.

According to Roxon, the total 12 e-health sites will be aiming to have in excess of half a million Australian enrolled before the national launch of the electronic health records on 1 July 2012.

More here:

http://www.cio.com.au/article/381341/doha_announes_second_wave_e-health_sites/

The full list of sites and the technologies is found on the blog here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2011/03/wave-2-sites-for-pcehr-program-here-is.html

Or at the first link above.

Why is this all just an utter fiasco? It is easy.

After careful checking with a range of NEHTA insiders and sources it is now clear a national integration architecture and strategy does not exist.

Worse some sources have suggested that NEHTA has a consultant working away on a ‘Standards Gap Analysis’ due in May which will be a first step towards working out how these pilots - which by then are meant to have developed their implementation plans - are to be forged into a coherent national system.

Anyone with any clue knows that all this work has to be done first - and not as an afterthought.

I challenge NEHTA and DoHA to show I am wrong by releasing the already developed plans that are going to result in any form of coherent national PCEHR system. They won’t and can’t because they simply does not exist.

Half a billion dollars will go largely down the gurgler as these idiots utterly fail to get even the basics of large project delivery 101 right.

This will see the Minister lose her portfolio when the public realises just how badly this has been done and how political deadlines have utterly overwhelmed common sense.

Not only is the design of the PCEHR a disaster but this will now be compounded by implementation of island like pilots which will really struggle to ever talk to each other.

Just amazing! Incompetence on this scale just defies belief.

David.