This was published three and a half years ago.
This is the year of delivery: NEHTA
Summary: The standards and foundations for nation-wide e-health solutions in Australia have now mainly been completed, according to National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) CEO Peter Fleming, leaving implementation on the agenda for 2009.
The standards and foundations for nation-wide e-health solutions in Australia have now mainly been completed, according to National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) CEO Peter Fleming, leaving implementation on the agenda for 2009.
"I've actually been pleasantly surprised at a lot of the work that's been done in the background around foundation standards. We're actually starting from a very good position," Fleming told ZDNet.com.au. in an interview last week.
"The reality is, though, that we have to move very quickly into a delivery mode and that means implementing. In my expectation, well, this is the year of delivery for NEHTA."
NEHTA had an "absolute mandate" from the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to deliver in individual healthcare identifiers (which link electronic medical records together), Fleming said, which the authority has been working together with Medicare on. "Medicare is extraordinarily well positioned to do this because of its history and very keen to make this work," he said.
Although creating the individual healthcare identifier for Australians meant a "fairly substantial database", Fleming said the difficulties were created by non-technical issues. There were privacy issues, work flow issues and overarching consumer and government requirements, he said. Legislative changes would also have to be made.
This year would also see a number of pilots, according to Fleming. "I am expecting that as the year progresses we will move very quickly around some fairly reasonable scale pilots around medication management and discharge referrals, and we are talking to a number of groups about that at the moment," he said.
Those waiting for an all-at-once implementation would go home disappointed, however. NEHTA would move ahead incrementally, Fleming said, with the authority consulting states, peak bodies and vendors along the way.
Lots more here:
There is really some great reading in the rest of the article.
Heavens this has taken a long time!
Feel free to rate NEHTA’s performance via the comments.
David.
Not worth a comment because they have not delivered anything productive that any of us have been able to use in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 except for one hell of a lot of pain, frustration, anguish and empty promises. Score ZERO.
ReplyDeleteHow Peter Fleming, the NEHTA Board and NEHTA's senior management team can keep a straight face and sleep well at night without any erosion or disturbance of their individual or collective conscience(s), is way far and beyond me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a "taxpayer funded" tragic joke!
Tony Abbott needs to drown this NEHTA puppy he initially fostered as Health Minister the first chance he gets IF he wins office as one way to redeem his cardinal sin of letting NEHTA arise and run rogue and rampant with Taxpayers money with zero accountability in the first place.
We will see how this ehealth soap opera pans out in the very near future.
Maybe Hon. Ms Plibersek's recent "Ask a question" parliamentary outburst was targeted squarely at Senate Estimates and their lack of ability to hold DOHA and NEHTA Accountable on her (our) behalf?!?
Tony Abbott has put federal health IT bureaucrats on notice saying he expects tangible results within a year, specifically functioning electronic health records - or heads would start to roll.
ReplyDelete"I am sick of trials and studies and working groups," Abbott said.
"I want patients to see a difference in 12 months. If patients do not see a difference, we will have failed," Abbot said, adding he was not prepared to be "held hostage" by a never-ending chase for the latest and greatest IT solutions.
"For too long we have tried to achieve too much."
Julian Bajkowski 27/06/2005 10:18:54
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/134692/abbott_crash_tackles_e-health_program/
What has Mr Abbott got to say today after 8 long years?
ReplyDeleteYou think we have been slow-YES and also look elsewhere to see how fundamental problems have been KNOWN, success has been ACHIEVED and NOT ACHIEVED.
ReplyDelete1. Safran C. Editorial. Int J Med Inform. 1999;54:155-6.[Full issue on 25 years of effective clinical computing.]
2. Blum B.I. Implementing Health Care Information Systems. New York: Springer_Verlag; 1989.
3. Blum BI. Clinical Information Systems. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1986 1986.
4. Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS. To Err Is Human Building a Safer Health System: Committee on Quality of Health Care in America INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE. NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C.; 2000.
5. Leape LL, Berwick DM. Five years after To Err Is Human: what have we learned? JAMA. 2005;293(19):2384-90. Epub 2005/05/19.
6. 2011- Health Information Technology Institute Of Medicine, Health IT and Patient Safety Building Safer Systems for Better Care, The National Academies Press: Washington D.C.
7. 2011-Jha, A.K. and D.C. Classen, Getting moving on patient safety--harnessing electronic data for safer care. N Engl J Med.
Given the current government has had 6 odd years to fix/change what Mr Abbott started, I hardly think he can be blamed for the failures of NeHTA and DoHA. We have had so many pilots in this country over the last 20 years, that there should be about 100 airlines flying!
ReplyDeleteTime for change and for the government of either colour to listen to industry, and not just the big guys. SME is trying to stay alive, but seem to always get overlooked when the projects come up. VCCC is a classic example. A small business can't put up a niche application without being a party to a consortium - how will a SME get any traction with a large SI company, or major vendor wanting all the funds for themselves for requirements gathering during the pilot phase?
Paul, to this I can add. At an AMA meeting in Brisbane after a debate between Abbott (Minister) and Gillard (opposition) Abbott stated in a typical political manner over tea break. "it has nothing to do with patients it all about the money and getting re-elected". Also there is a bit of the NFI syndrome here and NO collaboration (even sidelining) of core people who could help get us on the road.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in previous comments.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of money that has been spent on this project and no accountability is nothing short of amazing.
The system is a record keeping system with a feed from various sources.
Other industry sectors have had these systems in place for decades and at a fraction of the cost.
@Terry, and we keep re-electing blasted politicians! :-)
ReplyDeleteI guess at least Mr Abbott was honest - which Ms Gillard has been a little less so.....