I Have To Say It Really Is Time For The Commonwealth Audit Office To Review The PCEHR Program.

Over the last few weeks we have had two demonstrations of just how useful audits conducted by the Commonwealth Auditor and his team can be.

In just two weeks we have discovered just how badly the 5^th Community Pharmacy Agreement was administered by the Department of Health and how the Defence Department made a financial hash of implementing an Electronic Health Record for the 80,000 in the Defence Forces.

See here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/looks-like-some-extreme-dodgyness.html

and here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/defence-has-few-cost-overruns-on-its.html

Despite the efforts of NEHTA, DoH and Accenture over what is now close to five years evidence the PCEHR is making a difference is still lacking and it seems money is still being spent to develop aspects of the system.

We saw this as recently as last week:

eHealth Integration Sample Code (eHISC) v2.0 March 2015 Release

Created on Thursday, 12 March 2015

NEHTA has released updated specifications for the eHealth Integration Sample Code (eHISC) comprising source code and associated documentation for the software.

It is available for download from the following location on the NEHTA website:

• https://www.nehta.gov.au/implementation-resources/implementation-and-adoption/ehealth-integration-sample-code

eHISC has had multiple enhancements, please download the Release Note v2.0 to view changes:

• https://www.nehta.gov.au/implementation-resources/implementation-and-adoption/EP-2036-2015/NEHTA-2040-2015

The eHISC provides implementers and software vendors with a sample implementation of a communications solution that enables patient administration systems and clinical information systems to interact with the Healthcare Identifiers Service and the personally controlled eHealth record system (PCEHR).

More here:

http://www.nehta.gov.au/media-centre/news/768-ehealth-integration-sample-code-ehisc-v2-0-march-2015-release

Based on various announcements and comments from Senate Estimates investment is continuing even without apparent Budgetary approval.

Surely it is time for the Auditor to review what has been done, how well it has been done, what has been spent, how transparent the project has been and what has been delivered? We need a fact based check-point before Ms Ley decides where to from here with the PCEHR.

Having waited for so long for any decision, getting such a check point makes sense to me!

David.