This popped up a few days ago.
Bendigo makes the most of eHealth records
By Hannah Knight
BENDIGO health professionals are embracing the eHealth record initiative.
The federal government initiative is a secure online summary of your health information designed to enable doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers to view and share your health information to provide patients with the best possible care.
Loddon Mallee Murray Medicare Local has teamed up with St John of God Hospital Bendigo to help people register their eHealth records.
LMMML trained 11 of the hospital’s volunteers to help staff, patients and visitors register for an eHealth record.
LMMML eHealth co-ordinator Katrina Law commended St John of God Hospital Bendigo for embracing the eHealth initiative.
“We have been working closely with the hospital to develop a whole of hospital approach to the eHealth program - volunteer eHealth assistants are vital to this vision," she said.
“As more people register and organisations join the eHealth record system, the better connected our health system with become.
"Being a volunteer eHealth assistant allows the St John of God volunteers to become involved in various capacities across the hospital.
"This keeps role of volunteering meaningful interesting and fulfilling."
Ms Law said the partnership was in its infancy but had already been well-received.
"We are hoping that registrations will increase once information has been sent out in a pre-admission kit," she said.
"The eHealth record is a Commonwealth program, completely free of charge and completely voluntary.
More here:
What is going on here? The PCEHR is under review, the Budget is about to be slashed and money which might be spent elsewhere is being spent on a program which may have a life measured in weeks.
I am surprised the Medicare Local thinks it is OK to just press on and continue spending when it is clear there is likely to me major changes if not outright cancellation.
It will hardly be a good look if the volunteers discover they have been conned and wasted their time on a program the new Government has decided to cancel. This outcome has to be an even chance I would reckon.
Also I really do not like the idea of enthusiastic volunteers signing people up to anything when they typically have something rather larger on their mind - like an upcoming operation. Not the time to be at your most clear about what you are agreeing to!
It will hardly be a good look if the volunteers discover they have been conned and wasted their time on a program the new Government has decided to cancel. This outcome has to be an even chance I would reckon.
Also I really do not like the idea of enthusiastic volunteers signing people up to anything when they typically have something rather larger on their mind - like an upcoming operation. Not the time to be at your most clear about what you are agreeing to!
Oh well.
David.
Just well-trained by Health to make the 'right' noises, no matter how inappropriate and ill-timed, by the sound of it. Before MLs, Divisions of GP had pretty much embraced that modus operandi.
ReplyDeleteI suggest our health policy makers listen to yesterday's Health Report on Radio National. It was first broadcast on 20 May, 2013.
ReplyDeleteImproving patients' care in hospitals
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/improving-patients27-care-in-hospitals/5139932
From the transcript:
"Terry Platchek: We have to look at problems in our processes in the exact same way. We don't want to jump to a solution before we've ever really understood what the problem is, we don't want to do it necessarily from a boardroom, we want to go to where the work is being done, look to see what problems are actually occurring, find out which ones are the most pertinent to work on and bring all of those folks that are at the front-line, the nurses, therapists, physicians, social workers, bring them altogether and say these are the problems we are seeing that are affecting our patients, how can we come together and design a better process so that there is less of these problems.
Norman Swan: They own the solution.
Terry Platchek: They own the problem and they own the solution.
Norman Swan: And you put a lot of store on defining the problem correctly.
Terry Platchek: I think it was Dorothea Brande who said that a problem well described is a problem half solved. I definitely believe that."
Any eHealth record needs to be part of improved processes. Understanding the processes and the problems associated with them is not only where you start it's where better health outcomes are achieved.
IMHO, the PCEHR is going to make the system worse, not better.
A happy new year to David and the readers of his blog.