This appeared last week:
Patients given immediate access to results on MHR
The DoHAC has scrapped a seven-day delay in patients viewing pathology and diagnostic imaging results, against the advice of medical colleges.
The My Health Record changes were one recommendation of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.
Patients will be able to access certain test results immediately and without the supervision or oversight of their doctor, following a change to My Health Record (MHR) access rules.
03 May 2024
The
Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) has confirmed patients will no
longer have to wait seven days before they can see their pathology and
diagnostic imaging reports.
It says this change will give both patients and their doctors better access to
information, empower patients to participate in their own healthcare, and
reduce duplication.
While there will still be a delay in some circumstances, such as where there is
evidence of clinical safety or other risks, the
decision overrides serious concerns from the RACGP and other medical groups
about the potential risks of making results immediately available to patients.
‘Maintaining the seven-day rule allows consumers to have access to their health
information, albeit with a small delay that allows their GP or other clinician
to discuss their results with them,’ the
college said in a submission last year.
‘We do not consider the benefit of real-time access to results outweighs the
potential harm of consumers misinterpreting results or receiving unfortunate
results with no immediate clinical support.’
Dr Emil Djakic,a member of the RACGP Expert Committee – Funding and Health
System Reform, told newsGP
the changes mean medical information could reach patients in a way that cannot
be contextualised by their GP.
‘Some patients are very literate and will be more than happy to look, some
patients will not even bother looking at it, and there’ll be a few that will
look at it and probably see some pretty scary outcomes,’ he said.
‘Some of the language in these reports does create quite a lot of anxiety
without a level of health literacy, so that is concern.
‘It comes with a responsibility, and that is the responsibility of the patient
who, on viewing that data, has to accept what they’re seeing is something
they’re reading without any assistance or interpretation.’
The changes were one of the recommendations of the Strengthening Medicare
Taskforce, which also called for public and private pathology and
diagnostic imaging providers to share their reports to MHR by default.
However, Dr Djakic said the lack of a seven-day access delay means some
patients could see their results and choose not to follow-up with their
healthcare provider.
‘They will choose to interpret it themselves because it avoids a visit to the
doctor, or a phone call, or a consult – there are all sorts of reasons that the
consumer might choose to say, “that’s adequate for me”,’ he said.
‘We need to be making sure it’s somehow reflected in My Health Record that this
consumer has viewed the data and if they don’t proceed with engaging with the
appropriate clinician, to help steer them through that data.’
Currently, 99% of GPs are registered and using MHR, with
the service seeing a 24% increase in people using it to view their pathology
reports in the past 13 months.
The volume of pathology and diagnostic imaging reports uploaded is also in the
rise, with both up around one third in just one year.
As the popularity of MHR continues to grow and as patients demand more
digitised and modernised access to their healthcare records, Dr Djakic said GPs
must adapt.
‘In health system reform, we’re clearly keen to see data move more easily and
make the patient the centre of their healthcare, and this is a step to that,’
he said.
‘We’re seeing these sorts of adaptions every day, and our industry is in the
midst of seeing what this means, how it works, and how we continue to serve the
patient with the best possible care with this information.
‘We’re in this reform space where we’re looking at how do we how to manage this
in a way that meets the patient’s needs as safely, and with as much care and
quality as required.’
To accommodate the access changes, the Australian Digital Health Agency will
soon begin helping healthcare providers to meet the new requirements.
Here is the link:
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/patients-given-immediate-access-to-results-on-mhr
This looks to me rather like a population wide experiment that will probably work out most of the time but my cause all sorts of problems with a few. I hope there is a safety net to catch those patients but I am not sure there is.
We can all wait and see how it goes!
David.
3 comments:
"The DoHAC has scrapped a seven-day delay in patients viewing pathology and diagnostic imaging results, against the advice of medical colleges"
Yet another desperate attempt to ramp up interest in My HR.
Nothing has worked so far, why should this be any different?
The Productivity Commission has recommended ADHA fix the MyHealthRecord in order to realise massive savings in health care costs.!!!!!
It hasn't been scrapped. In fact any change has been delayed. Read this instead. https://www.healthservicesdaily.com.au/seven-day-mhr-delay-dohac-remains-committed-to-collaboration/14529
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