Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Thursday, November 25, 2021

This Is One Of the Better Government Web Site Stuff Ups I Have Caught! All Is Good At The End!

A day or so ago I had an alert that there was a new publication from the ADHA. So I duly clicked on the link: Imaging my surprise at the headline:

Study introduces new advice for the use of omega-3 supplements in pregnancy

18 November 2021

New technology designed to streamline communication between hospitals and community health providers is allowing clinicians to share important patient information faster and improve patient care.

SA Health Chief Digital Health Officer, Bret Morris, said SA Health, in partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency, has trialled the secure messaging technology and is now rolling it out in a staged approach.

“Secure Messaging allows hospitals and healthcare providers, including general practitioners, private specialists and allied health professionals to communicate with each other in a safe and secure manner,” Mr Morris said.

“It reduces the use of fax machines and post, improving accuracy, privacy and the speed in which clinical documents can continue to be shared between sites.

“This technology makes the clinician’s work easier and more efficient, while contributing to improved patient care for South Australians.”

The Secure Messaging service is active at all Local Health Networks using either the Sunrise Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or the Open Architecture Clinical Information System (OACIS).

To date, it has also been activated for over 300 practises and more than 2,000 individual external health professionals in South Australia and surrounding states.

Mr Morris said the first stage of the rollout allows discharge summaries to be sent directly to participating health providers, giving them access to accurate and up to date patient summaries.

“Since the service was launched, around 40,000 discharge summaries have been sent out from SA Health sites which includes both metropolitan and regional based hospitals,” Mr Morris said.

“The system is being rolled out in a phased approach with eligible health providers sent a direct invitation to jump on board and around 10 practices being activated each day.

“Over time, the system will expand to include other documents like electronic outpatient referrals, specialist letters and other communications from SA Health so community health providers can receive an accurate reflection of a patient’s overall healthcare.”

Australian Digital Health Agency CEO, Amanda Cattermole, said it was exciting to see South Australia at the forefront of new technology.

“Healthcare providers and patients expect and deserve a digital health system that enables important clinical information to be safely and efficiently shared,” Ms Cattermole said.

“This technology meets rigorous security and privacy requirements, replacing existing manual processes and continuing to improve the interoperability of Australia’s broader digital health system.

“We are really excited to see so many healthcare providers already coming on board and using this emerging technology to help improve patient care.”

Here is the link:

https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/about+us/news+and+media/all+media+releases/study+introduces+new+advice+for+the+use+of+omega-3+supplements+in+pregnancy

I felt this was a mess up as you would imagine. A day later we get the following from the same link:

Study introduces new advice for the use of omega-3 supplements in pregnancy

17 November 2021

Pregnant women across South Australia will receive new recommendations for the use of omega-3 supplements as part of a study aimed at reducing the incidence of premature births.

SA Pathology Clinical Service Director, Dr Tom Dodd, said the new guidance will be provided to participants in the statewide study to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of omega-3 supplementation.

“Since April this year, we have partnered with South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) to introduce free omega-3 screening to our existing antenatal testing, which is used to detect a range of foetal anomalies such as neural tube defects and Down Syndrome,” Dr Dodd said.

“Research shows pregnant women who have a low concentration of omega-3 in their blood are more likely to have an early birth, so study participants are given information on how appropriate supplements can increase their omega-3 levels and significantly reduce their likelihood of a preterm birth.

“Based on feedback provided by health professionals and the latest evidence, our guidance included as part of the study will now be updated to include a more flexible approach for women with sufficient omega-3 levels. This will be reflected in test results issued from today to coincide with World Prematurity Day.”

Under the updated SAHMRI guidance, women with moderate omega-3 levels, who would prefer to continue taking prenatal multivitamins containing low-dose omega-3, which is shown to be safe, will be advised to do so.

This differs from the previous advice which recommended pregnant women with moderate omega-3 levels stop taking any omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

SAHMRI Deputy Director and Women and Kids Theme Leader, Professor Maria Makrides, said the new advice will be included in the study, which also recommends women with low omega-3 levels take omega-3 fatty acid supplements until 37 weeks, to reduce the risk of early preterm birth.

“So far, over 2,000 pregnant women have participated in the omega-3 screening, and we are now routinely doing more than 100 omega-3 tests per week covering about 35 per cent of women in singleton pregnancies in SA,” Professor Makrides said.

“Ideally, we would like all pregnant women carrying a single baby to have an omega-3 test within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. No extra blood is needed as the omega-3 test is done on blood collected as part of SA Pathology’s SA Maternal Serum Antenatal Screening (SAMSAS) program.

“The current evaluation of the omega-3 testing will run for another two years. This should give us the necessary data to see if we are making a real difference in reducing the rates of prematurity in the community. I am sure that these results will guide how omega-3 testing will be used in the future.”

The omega-3 program is monitored electronically and does not identify any of the families involved. Those who do not wish to be included in the statewide evaluation can choose to have their details withdrawn.

And at the proper link we now see see:

Streamlining health data to improve patient care

18 November 2021

New technology designed to streamline communication between hospitals and community health providers is allowing clinicians to share important patient information faster and improve patient care.

SA Health Chief Digital Health Officer, Bret Morris, said SA Health, in partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency, has trialled the secure messaging technology and is now rolling it out in a staged approach.

“Secure Messaging allows hospitals and healthcare providers, including general practitioners, private specialists and allied health professionals to communicate with each other in a safe and secure manner,” Mr Morris said.

“It reduces the use of fax machines and post, improving accuracy, privacy and the speed in which clinical documents can continue to be shared between sites.

“This technology makes the clinician’s work easier and more efficient, while contributing to improved patient care for South Australians.”

The Secure Messaging service is active at all Local Health Networks using either the Sunrise Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or the Open Architecture Clinical Information System (OACIS).

To date, it has also been activated for over 300 practises and more than 2,000 individual external health professionals in South Australia and surrounding states.

Mr Morris said the first stage of the rollout allows discharge summaries to be sent directly to participating health providers, giving them access to accurate and up to date patient summaries.

“Since the service was launched, around 40,000 discharge summaries have been sent out from SA Health sites which includes both metropolitan and regional based hospitals,” Mr Morris said.

“The system is being rolled out in a phased approach with eligible health providers sent a direct invitation to jump on board and around 10 practices being activated each day.

“Over time, the system will expand to include other documents like electronic outpatient referrals, specialist letters and other communications from SA Health so community health providers can receive an accurate reflection of a patient’s overall healthcare.”

Australian Digital Health Agency CEO, Amanda Cattermole, said it was exciting to see South Australia at the forefront of new technology.

“Healthcare providers and patients expect and deserve a digital health system that enables important clinical information to be safely and efficiently shared,” Ms Cattermole said.

“This technology meets rigorous security and privacy requirements, replacing existing manual processes and continuing to improve the interoperability of Australia’s broader digital health system.

“We are really excited to see so many healthcare providers already coming on board and using this emerging technology to help improve patient care.”

For more information, see the secure messaging page.

https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/about+us/news+and+media/all+media+releases/streamlining+health+data+to+improve+patient+care

Fortunately this link above works and we learn what is happening:

Secure messaging

Secure Messaging allows secure delivery of patient clinical documents electronically between health professionals and organisations, including between SA Health and community healthcare practitioners.

Secure messaging enables the receipt of clinical documents by practices, directly into your conformant clinical information system software, making it a more efficient solution than fax, post or the temporary ShareFile tool.

How this will benefit my patients and my practice

How this is being used

All Adelaide metropolitan hospitals and select country hospitals now have secure messaging capability.

Currently SA Health can send the following documents* by secure messaging:

  • Discharge/separation summaries
  • Clinical summary
  • Nursing and Midwifery discharge letter
  • Neonatal discharge summary
  • ED Visit
  • Due to technical constraints, some hospitals will continue to send some of these documents by existing methods and not by secure messaging

Phased activation for eligible Practices

SA Health will introduce secure messaging in a phased roll out over the coming months. Eligible practices will be invited by email from SA Health.

Interested practices should review the below fact sheets for guidance on becoming eligible:

Support information

Once your practice has been activated, you can familiarise yourself with the following support information.

Additional help

Finding the Clinical Documents

If your specific software is not listed here please contact your practice management software company for more help.

Here is the direct link:

So all is well that end well and we see some progress being made.

Pity about the false start!

David.

 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't understand. IF "SAHealth will introduce secure messaging in a phased rollout over coming months" ....

.... How can it be "that since the service was launched around 40,000 discharge summaries have been sent out from SA health sites"!

40,000
!

Oliver Frank said...

"New technology designed to streamline communication between hospitals and community health providers is allowing clinicians to share important patient information faster and improve patient care."

The technology is not new - it is HealthLink. Its use by SA Health is what is new.

Anonymous said...

Interesting Oliver. So is it correct to say that since the service was launched by SA Health 40,000 discharge summaries have already been sent out?

Seriously Oliver? 40,000 equates to 800 per week!
When was this "NEW" service introduced may I respectfully ask?

If it's new it must have been a couple of months or so ago.
40,000!!!! Who's kidding who?

John said...

The word fad comes to mind. The project world and more so the “Agile” world harbour highly skilled people in creating larger-than-life narratives that dovetailed very effectively to build up a self-serving bias in how to attracted people (specifically government) to things. Consultancy marketing teams are fueling how fashionable something is to ensure it was not just a fad but a fashion for the times. They exploit the people's desire for a simple answer to a very complex set of problems, and they put that group through a cycle-recycle pattern to keep them from getting disillusioned. IMHO

Sarah Conner said...

@John - They exploit the people's desire for a simple answer to a very complex set of problems, and they put that group through a cycle-recycle pattern to keep them from getting disillusioned

They certainly do - well put

Dr Ian Colclough said...

@11.22AM and 11.04PM Correction.
They exploit the ..... bureaucrat's and politician's ..... desire for a simple answer to a very complex set of problems.

Neither have any real understanding of the multiplicity of health domains, cultures and workflows, which contribute to the complexity, and because the 'health delivery system' is so huge and costly, the simple logic embraced is that the 'solutions' to 'fixing' the system to 'streamline' the workflows to make it 'work' better, more efficiently and more cost effectively, can only be delivered by .... the “Agile” world which harbours the highly skilled people ... to which John (11.22 AM) refers. Therein lies the rub!

Anonymous said...

@11:54 am Yes, they offer solutions that are all-encompassing, which, once embedded are inordinately difficult to displace by the time the client realises the system is inadequate. These "Agile" agents sell exactly what the client wants which has nothing to do with what the Agent has available for sale. Unbeknowns to the naive client the money lies in the modifications, enhancements and system rewrites.