This appeared last week:
WA government commits AU$8m to build an electronic medical record system
Touting it will deliver 'patient-centric' healthcare across the state.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | August 7, 2020 -- 06:30 GMT (16:30 AEST) | Topic: Innovation
The government of Western Australian has said it will commit AU$8 million to begin planning for a state-wide electronic medical record (EMR) system.
Once developed, the system will enable clinicians to view information such as patient notes, assessments, medical histories, and diagnostic test results in one place. It will also mean that patients no longer need to wait for medical records to be transferred between clinicians.
"The development of an electronic medical record system will enable information to be available across the full continuum of care -- not only promoting safety and quality but also saving lives," Western Australia Minister for Health Roger Cook said.
"It is wonderful to see the advancements being made in health as we progress on our digital journey, and planning for an electronic medical record system is a key component of this."
The system was one of the key recommendations of the Sustainable Health Review. Initially launched in June 2017, the review panel was tasked with delivering "a patient first, innovative and sustainable health system" for Western Australians. It delivered its final report [PDF] in April 2019.
The development of the WA state-based system would come despite the existence of My Health Record, the country's national e-health system, since 2012.
The Western Australian government has been contacted for further comment.
Lots more here:
I suspect this is an actual funding announcement of the beginning of work which was discussed here late last year.
WA Health plots decade-long IT systems overhaul in new digital strategy
By Justin Hendry on Oct 3, 2019 4:26PM
State-wide e-health record to form foundation.
WA Health has laid out plans for a widespread overhaul of its clinical and corporate IT systems over the next decade as part of a new digital health strategy aimed squarely at improving patient care.
The ten-year blueprint [pdf], released on Wednesday, reveals an extensive program of work to transform the state’s health system through interoperable systems, big data, AI and data analytics.
Central to the strategy’s vision is the planned state-wide electronic medical record (EMR), which is considered the foundation for many of the patient-centric improvements WA Health hopes to introduce.
The department has already begun looking at its EMR options, having approached the market in August to gain an understanding of the “current market environment”.
The case for a state-wide EMR was established in the government’s sustainable health review interim report last year as a means to achieving better access to patient records.
The final report [pdf], released in April this year, urged WA Health to work towards “all health services having a functional electronic medical record or equivalent by July 2029”.
But in the 2020-2030 digital strategy, the department said it would look to begin implementing the planned EMR over the next two years.
The EMR is expected to provide WA Health with a “single source of truth” for patient information, including “integrated progress notes, clinical assessments and summaries, medication history, images and diagnostic test results”.
It is also slated to link to a planned state-wide electronic medication management (eMeds) system, which could be provided as part of the EMR or as a seperate integrated system.
While the department has not yet decided on the approach it will take for the EMR, the strategy points out that whatever approach is eventually decided on will “represent a significant improvement on the present combination of paper-based and electronic systems”.
WA Health said it plans to rollout the EMR over the course of the next decade, which - in a similar fashion to NSW’s e-health strategy - has been separated into four horizons due to the size and complexity of the shift.
The EMR is expected to help WA’s health system to become “increasingly virtual and personalised healthcare system”, partly because of the “seamless access to real-time comprehensive patient information”.
“Though the use of mobile devices, video, web-based services and remote monitoring sensors, the patient is connected with clinicians, carers and health information in more direct and efficient ways,” the strategy states.
But not only patients will benefit from the system. Clinical staff will be able to access real-time information anywhere using a mobile device, leading to improved efficiency.
WA Health is currently working on a state-wide end user computing strategy to ensure staff have “secure, authenticated access to WA health systems” through a single sign-on system.
“A mobile-enabled employee portal will allow streamlined access by employees to their personal records such as rosters, payroll and leave, as well as to the specific business and clinical systems that they use,” the strategy states.
There is lots more on the plan here:
It would be fair to say that the world has rather changed between October last year and now and I suspect, if anything, the need for improved systems has only grown, rather than shrunk, in the face of the pandemic.
The 10 year Digital Strategy referenced in the second article is a workman-like vanilla State Digital Health Strategy of no special interest other than its protracted duration, and its apparent enthusiasm for the #myHealthRecord. As we have seen recently such plans can be blown over in just months let alone a decade!
I wonder what infrastructure is wrapped around the planning process as $8M will not get far for state-wide systems. That there is a wait of 9 months from the Strategy release until this funding announcement is a worry but I suppose many Health Ministers have been pretty busy.
Given that WA has always been a bit of a Digital Health laggard I don’t see much change coming any time soon. We await developments.
David.
2 comments:
Probably $8m for defining requirements, feasibility and request for tender before any implementation. The published WA reports appear to be high level without much detail, nowhere near a RFT.
@11:02 AM .. probably??!! $8 million!!
mmmm .. .. could you have a 'shot' at itemising that into $1 million aliquots.
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