Overview of the National eHealth Strategy and the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record

1. Overview of the National eHealth Strategy and the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record • 20 March 2012 • Gail Easterbrook • NEHTA Clinical Lead • The National E-Health Transition Authority

2. Today • The latest news from The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) • Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record

3. From the National eHealthStrategy eHealth is one of the most important opportunities to: • Improve the quality and safety of healthcare • Reduce waste and inefficiency • Improve continuity and health outcomes for patients

4. NEHTA’s purpose • Lead the uptake of eHealth systems of national significance; and coordinate the progression and accelerate the adoption of eHealth by delivering urgently needed integration infrastructure and standards for health information.

5. NEHTA’s place in eHealth Involved in implementation sites Managing agent for PCEHR Support integration of eHealth National eHealth infrastructure

6. Why are we doing this?

7. NEHTA’s work

8. Update – national foundations • NEHTA has made significant progress in designing, operationalising and enhancing the essential foundations required to enable eHealth: • Built and implemented the Healthcare Identifiers Service. As at December 2011 there are 24,350,000 IHIs, 526,000 HPI-Is and 624 HPI-Os issued. • More than 2 million IHIs downloaded into clinical systems, including 1.3 million in the Lead eHealth sites and in the TAS and ACT Patient Administration Systems • Built and implemented the National Clinical Terminology and Information Service; including Australian Medicines Terminology and SNOMED CT, the National Product Catalogue, and the Security and Access Framework. The NPC is being used by NSW, WA, SA, VIC, QLD and the ACT. VIC has begun limited AMT rollout. • Designed the National Authentication Service for Health – currently being built.

9. Update – Solutions and standards • NEHTA has co-ordinated the progression of priority eHealth initiatives: • Secure Messaging – national guidelines and specifications published by Standards Australia. NT has been implementing this standard since 2009 and is finalising the design of its Continuity of Care project. ACT will be using secure messaging as part of its product and inventory control system. • e-Discharge – national specifications developed. SA is implementing a compliant messaging application which will deliver discharge summaries. • e-Referral – national specifications developed. • e-Specialist letters – national specifications developed. • e-Prescriptions (ETP) – national specifications developed and built into the 5th Community Pharmacy Agreement. • e-Pathology – national specifications developed and built into the Pathology Funding Agreement.

10. It’s happening now Inner East Melbourne Medicare Local / Eastern Health - Aged Care; Chronic disease; After hours clinics; Received referrals Hunter Urban Medicare Local / HNEHS- Mental health; Chronic disease; After hours clinics Metro North Brisbane Medicare Local / QLD Health - Aged care; Chronic disease; Community pharmacies; Older Australians > 50yrs ACCORAS- People with disabilities; War widows; Children Calvary Healthcare ACT - Chronic Disease, Palliative care Department of Health and Human Services (Tasmania) - Aged and Palliative care FRED IT - Whole of community (those with repeat scripts) Greater Western Sydney eHealth Consortium / NSW Health - Mothers and children, aged and chronic care; Indigenous Mater Health Services – Mothers Medibank Private Limited - Chronic Disease; Whole of community Northern Territory Department of Health and Families in conjunction with the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory and General Practice Network NT - Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders, Whole of Territory St Vincent’s & Mater Health Sydney - Complex and chronic conditions: Mental health; people living with HIV/AIDS; homeless people; older Australians; Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders

11. Trialling eHealth records across Australia • The experiences of these 12 sites are helping to shape the national system. • Lessons learnt from the eHealth sites to date include: • Providing individual GP practices with face-to-face support from well trained people who understand the unique environment of a GP practice is critical. • Key staff that can provide information and support in relation to eHealth include GPs , practice nurses, practice owners and managers. • Existing local relationships should be leveraged with, for example, Medicare, the Department of Health and Ageing, the Medicare Local and NEHTA. • Communications should be simple, clear and regular.

12. eHealth records: What you need to know? • A national system of eHealth records has the potential to save money, make the health system more efficient and improve care for patients. That is why the Australian Government is investing in a national eHealth records system. • July is just the starting point for the eHealth records system, which will grow as more consumers and healthcare professionals become a part of it.

13. Why choose an eHealth record • BETTER ACCESS TO ACCURATE INFORMATIONabout patients, their medical history and treatment – no more solely relying on patients’ memories • QUICK AND EFFICIENT SHARING OF PATIENT INFORMATION between peers – for example, between a GP and a specialist • MORE TIME TREATING PATIENTS, less time spent tracking down records and test results • ACCESS TO POTENTIALLY LIFE-SAVING PATIENT INFORMATION in an emergency situation • FASTER ACCESS TO RELEVANT INFORMATION– such as immunisation history – helping you make better clinical decisions and save time • TO HELP PATIENTS better manage their health • IMPROVED CONNECTIVITY – the more healthcare organisations that participate, the better connected the system will become and the better it will serve you and your patients

14. What will eHealth records include? • 1 July is the starting point for the eHealth records system, which will grow as more individuals and healthcare professionals become a part of it. • Over time a patients’ eHealthrecord will include: • A shared health summary: a summary written by an authorised healthcare professional (such as a GP) about a patient’s health status • Hospital discharge summaries • Event summaries: A brief note written by any healthcare professional to record relevant information about the patient’s visit, e.g. new medicines prescribed, or a vaccination • Only identified healthcare professionals can enter information in the clinical record, ensuring it is clinically relevant and accurate. Patients will be able to enter demographic and basic healthcare information and keep private notes for their own use. • A patient can nominate an authorised healthcare professional to write their shared health summary. This will be someone who is involved in their ongoing care, such as a GP, registered nurse or Aboriginal health worker.

15. Accessing a patient’s eHealth record • There are two levels of access that a patient can choose when they set up their eHealth record: • Basic default access – which allows any healthcare professional who is treating a patient within a registered organisation to view their eHealth record • Advanced access – where patients may choose to set up their eHealth record so that only healthcare organisations that they authorise can access it. In an emergency, this can be overridden. • In an emergency, healthcare professionals will be able to view all clinical documents in a patient’s record on a temporary basis when a healthcare professional declares that there is a serious threat to life, health or safety.

16. What healthcare organisations can do now Healthcare providers and their organisations can start preparing now for the new eHealth record system. They will need: • → A Healthcare Provider Identifier - Individual (HPI-I) and your organisation will need a Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation (HPI-O) • → Both of these identifiers can be accessed from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or from the Department of Human Services - Medicare • → Clinical software that is ‘PCEHR ready’ • → To register with the PCEHR system operator (the Department of Health and Ageing) and accept the prescribed terms and conditions for participation from 1 July 2012

17. How will the roll-out of eHealth records happen? • For the eHealth system to work, you need to get involved now. Healthcare professionals such as GPs, pharmacists, hospitals and specialists are the first groups that are being targeted to start becoming eHealth ready. • The Government is working with multiple stakeholder groups to raise awareness within health professional and consumer communities. • From July patients will be able to register for an eHealth record. July 1 is only the first step and the full rollout will continue over many years. • Later in 2012 most healthcare professionals will be able to access the national eHealth records system to create shared health summaries for their patients or share patient information with other healthcare professionals.

18. In summary • For healthcare practitioners eHealthrecords will allow them to access a summary of patients’ important information in one place, meaning they will… Allow for more coordinated care Reduce possibility of adverse events Provide better health outcomes for patients Save time Save lives July is a starting point for the eHealth system which will provide better and more connected healthcare.

19. How you can learn more • Sign up for news and alerts www.yourhealth.gov.au/subscribe • Request information materials e.g. brochures • For further information visit www.yourhealth.gov.au A help desk – 1300 901 001 – is in operation from 9am-5pm Sydney time to assist you with any enquires you might have about an eHealthrecord.

20. Model healthcare communityTruck Roadshow 2012 www.nehta.gov.au for more information

21. Thank you and Questions