Just Why Would It Be That A Study Funded By The Public To Assess The PCEHR Be Kept Secret By NEHTA?

This appeared late last week.

GPs slam PCEHR in secret report

14th Aug 2014

Flynn Murphy

THE personally controlled e-health record is running chiefly on “goodwill”, and time-poor GPs say they have little reason to embrace it in its current form, according to a confidential report of the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) obtained by MO.

The report, dated 5 June, is a clinical impact assessment of the integration of e-health into primary care. It was prepared for a NEHTA program established to address major functionality and usability issues in the PCEHR.

Fifty-seven general practices responded to an expression of interest to take part, but 10 did not respond to emails or phone calls, six withdrew interest and four were ineligible because they weren’t using the PCEHR.

NEHTA ultimately received 35 completed questionnaires and selected 14 practices for face-to-face interviews.

Respondents said the time outlay was “onerous”; patients who had records did not know what they had signed up for; and that practices had to wear the cost of extensive troubleshooting, spending time “explaining and re-explaining their issue to multiple tiers of support personnel”.

The report also said the Practice Incentive Program eHealth Incentive did not incentivise practices to actually use the system, and that the “business case for PCEHR does not fit into the workflow of general practice”.

The report reinforces criticism that NEHTA’s focus has been on the technology rather than education and adoption.

Although the study set out to determine the proportion of primary care organisations likely to be affected by usability issues, it could not do this because “the sample is biased towards e-health experience and thus not representative of general practice in Australia”, the report conceded.

Lots more individual comments reported here:

http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/gps-slam-pcehr-in-secret-report

What can I say other than what we know the NEHTA and DoH have delivered a dud and should be fundamentally re-considered in the light of a properly updated and agreed National E-Health Strategy.

Just consulting on the PCEHR in the absence of a deeper review is a farce.

Just release the report, fix leadership and governance of e-Health, confirm a proper national strategy and then decide what to do. Please not the cart before the horse!

David.