We have had news of two/three new Health IT systems this week. First we had this for NSW Prisons:
Orion Health system underpins medical records in NSW
- 15 September 2014
- By Peter Dinham
The Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network (JH&FMHN) has gone live with an electronic medical record suite from e-Health technology company Orion Health to support the delivery of complete electronic medical records across the New South Wales public health system.
Justice Health’s goal is specifically to provide a critical platform for the Justice Health electronic health system’s (JHeHS) migration to a computerised record of a patient’s medical history related to the clinical care received while in JH&FMHN. This will contain a subset of information previously held in paper medical records including patient details, medical conditions, appointments, pathology results, electronic forms and medicines prescribed. The data is now held in one consolidated place and available state-wide as opposed to being held in multiple paper files and stand-alone electronic registers.
The Orion Health solution will enable the replacement of manual sharing of information between JH&FMHN and other health care providers by implementing applications that will support the patient journey and, in turn, aid clinicians in their decision making processes, while improving communication between clinicians by providing information at the point of care.
More here:
More here:
http://www.itwire.com/science-news/health/65415-orion-health-system-underpins-medical-records-in-nsw
Additionally we have had lots of coverage on this new initiative:
Datacom makes e-health play
Company acquires 20 per cent stake in SmartWard, appoints chief medical information officer
Hamish Barwick (CIO) on 18 September, 2014 10:01
Datacom is set to acquire a 20 per cent share in Canberra-based health informatics software company SmartWard as it moves into the e-health space.
The Australasian IT services firm will install SmartWard’s health informatics software in hospitals around Australia. The software automates nursing records and removes the need for paper documents.
According to clinical trials conducted in 2013 by Deakin University’s Centre for Clinical Nursing Research at two Eastern Health hospitals in Melbourne, the SmartWard software reduced the amount of time nurses had to spend filling out patient records and increased patient care times.
For example, the amount of time nurses spent at patient bedsides rose from 32.8 per cent to 48.1 per cent. Time spent filling out forms fell from 15.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent..
The Deakin University clinical trials were reviewed by Deloitte Access Economics on behalf of SmartWard.
According to Deloitte, the redeployment of nurse time to patient care increased nurse’s job satisfaction and shifted their time away from “low-value administrative work” to clinical care.
Lots more here:
Lastly there is lots about this newly implementing system:
Defence deploying $56M e-health system
25,000 ADF members currently have an individual health record
Byron Connolly (CIO) on 19 September, 2014 16:26
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) in December plans to complete the rollout of a $56 million e-health information system, which will be used by 2,300 health practitioners and support staff across the country.
The rollout began in April in Queensland and has already started contributing to improved clinical outcomes for ADF members and overall efficiency of primary care delivery.
The Defence eHealth Information System, supplied by UK firm EMIS, provides ADF personnel with an individual medical record from enlistment through to retirement.
It will be used by doctors, dentists, psychologists, physiotherapists, as well as a practice managers and administrators through the Joint Health Command, CSC's account general manager Defence Health, Drew Wilson, told CIO Australia.
More here:
There is also a lot of other coverage of which this is typical.
Blown-out Australian Defence Force e-health records rolled out
Summary: The Australian Defence Force has rolled out a new e-health program for initially 25,000 members at over double the initial budget of AU$55 million.
The rollout of an AU$133 million national e-health system for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the first full national e-health record system, according to Assistant Minister for Defence Stuart Robert.
"This government places great demands on our soldiers, sailors, air men and women. Our expectations are high of our personnel, because we truly believe service is unique," he said.
"In return, we will ensure our personnel have the best possible healthcare and support."
The system, which began development in 2011 with CSC Australia, is based on a system that has been provided by Edgton Medical Information Systems in the UK since 2007. Robert said that for this reason, it is a mature technology that has been proven. However, despite the maturity of the technology, the budget for the project blew out from AU$55 million in 2011 to AU$133 million.
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The PCEHR, which NEHTA and DoH are running around marketing as e-Health, is a small subset of Health IT and is by far the least important in terms of what is being delivered and how much is being spent.
Private developers are showing that support of care providers is what Health IT is all about and where improvements can be delivered which is hardly what is being seen from the all-consuming PCEHR monster.
Sadly, however, the DoH e-Health page essentially talks of little else but the PCEHR and all its various trials and tribulations.
It is time DoH and NEHTA looked outside their obsession with this obvious failure and stopped suggesting the PCEHR is the be all and end all of eHealth. It’s not! Systems that support clinicians doing their work are, so maybe that should be their focus!
David.
correct.
ReplyDeleteMost e-health in Australia happens despite DOH and NEHTA.
An audit needs to be conducted over the Defence eHealth project that blew out from AU$55 million in 2011 to AU$133 million. Having seen the budgets that these public servants construct for these project, it is glaringly obvious that it is comprised of up to 50% waste even before the "blow-out" occurred.
ReplyDeleteThe public servants that were managing these taxpayer dollars need to be held accountable. Firstly, they should not retain their jobs and secondly they should be named and shamed in the press.