Frustration mounts on e-health
THE national clinical lead advising on the e-health program has revealed frustration at not being able to access the system that he helped introduce.
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NEHTA
The following articles have the tag NEHTA
Haikerwal second World Medical Association term
MELBOURNE GP Dr Mukesh Haikerwal has been elected for a second term as chair of the World Medical Association (WMA), declaring his posting puts Australia in a leadership position for championing doctors’ rights globally.
E-health tour goes on the road
AUSTRALIA'S chief clinical adviser on e-health has been touring the country to discuss the beleaguered electronic medical records program with GPs, with a message for those who have had problems using the system.
AMA wants tight e-health software deadline extended
THE AMA has called for a delay in changes to the e-health Practice Incentive Program (PIP) ahead of a February deadline for practices to have their software up to date.
Growing frustration with national e-health program
CLINICIANS advising on the national e-health program say they are dissatisfied with the level of engagement by the National E-health Transition Authority (NEHTA), with MO understanding some are reconsidering their involvement.
Secure messaging switch could save practices $30,000 to offset PCEHR
GENERAL practices could offset any cost increases associated with the personally controlled e-health record (PCEHR) by switching to a secure messaging service instead of paper letters, a leading e-health expert has said.
US cyber crime sparks concern for PCEHR
WARNINGS from a leading internet fraud investigator that e-health crime is the fastest growing crime in the US and is spreading have sparked renewed criticism of the security of the government’s personally controlled e-health record system (PCEHR).
OAIC criticised for guidelines’ tone
THE AMA has criticised the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) draft PCEHR Enforcement Guidelines for “setting the wrong tone” and failing to highlight the importance of partnership and collaboration to the e-health rollout.
AMA slams govt over PIP information letter
THE government has defended a letter sent out to GPs that aimed to clarify new eligibility requirements for the e-health Practice Incentive Program after the AMA criticised the document for failing to provide any new assistance for doctors preparing to navigate the new scheme.
Govt accused of ignoring e-health warnings
THE federal opposition has accused Labor of putting "political spin before patient safety" after claims it ignored its own e-health agency’s warning of critical faults in the e-health system just days before its launch.
Lack of e-faith: hospitals snub identifier system
THE rollout of the national e-health system has hit another barrier, with the hospital sector unlikely to embrace the individual health identifiers (IHIs) allocated to Australians two years ago.
Don't discard the trusty stethoscope: patients rate it highly
Research has confirmed what many doubtless already suspected – appearing with clinical equipment, especially a stethoscope, makes a doctor appear more trustworthy to prospective patients.
Hospitals urged to use patient e-health numbers
THE public hospital sector is being urged to “realise the benefit” of Australia’s investment into the national e-health system, and use the unique health identification numbers that were created for every Australian two years ago.
Experts in the dark over patient e-health control
THE chief clinical expert advising the government on its e-health record system has claimed doctors involved were not properly informed about the final design, as efforts continue to overturn patients’ ability to delete documents from the record.
E-health software products to be available to GPs within months
GPs can expect to connect to the national e-health record system (NEHRS) within months, according to experts who say clinical software packages incorporating the system will be widely available by September.
PCEHR $233m commitment welcomed
EXPERTS have welcomed the government’s continued commitment to the personally controlled e-health records system but questioned the wisdom of forcing GPs to participate by threatening to withdraw practice incentive payments.
Budget 2012: what GP leaders say
Dr Paul Mara, President, RDAA: “I’m not disappointed with this budget because, sadly, I wasn’t expecting much for rural health in the first place. The level to which the bureaucrats have listened to rural GPs is very poor and the government is really struggling to work out what its workforce strategy should be. More rural doctors will be leaving the bush for good.”
Plibersek launches e-health marketing blitz
The government has a launched a charm offensive aimed at creating momentum for its personally controlled e-health record system, with the launch of an “online learning centre” for patients and practitioners.
Sticks and no carrots as govt pushes GPs on e-health records
THE government will bar GPs who don’t participate in the personally controlled electronic health record system from receiving e-health PIP payments, while stripping money from the existing telehealth incentive program to fund it.
‘We’ve been clear’: dept rejects PCEHR criticism
THE health department has rejected suggestions it has been anything but “clear and unequivocal” about funding arrangements for GPs compiling PCEHR records, as doctors’ groups continue to question the details.
Govt should fund e-health: Psychologists add their voice
PSYCHOLOGISTS have joined GPs and physiotherapists in calling on the government to fund the administration of e-health records, estimating the cost of setting up the necessary software alone at $3000 per provider.
PCEHR explained in AMA draft guide
THE extent of the change to general practice to be brought by the government’s e-health records system has been outlined, with the release of a 26-page draft guide on use of the new system.
Conflicting recommendations spur hot debate over PCEHR
LEGISLATION enabling the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system is set to be hotly debated in the Senate after a parliamentary inquiry splintered into conflicting recommendations from government, Greens and Coalition senators.
Physios launch bid for e-health record funds
GPs have cautiously backed a call from the Australian Physiotherapy Association for physiotherapists to receive government funding in preparation for the introduction of the personally controlled e-health record (PCEHR) system, but have questioned the touted $25 million price tag.
Secure messaging switch could save practices $30,000 to offset PCEHR
GENERAL practices could offset any cost increases associated with the personally controlled e-health record (PCEHR) by switching to a secure messaging service instead of paper letters, a leading e-health expert has said.
GPs to challenge govt on e-health costs
GPs concerned about a major workload increase from managing the federal government's personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) are planning to confront the government with the initiative’s true cost to their business before it goes live.
NEHTA a secret, 'toxic workplace'
A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry has heard the government body responsible for the planned e-health record system has become a “toxic workplace” operating under a “cloak of secrecy”, which has shut privacy advocates and consumers out of consultations.
Computer glitch stymies NEHTA trial
THE federal government's e-health trial has suffered an embarrassing setback after the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) discovered incompatibilities between the software used on its pilot websites and the main planned network.
Frustration as e-health questions go unanswered
VITAL questions about the personally controlled e-health record system (PCEHR) – that the government expects GPs to manage – have gone unanswered by the health department almost three months after they were asked in Senate estimates hearings.
E-records legislation to be investigated
THE Senate will investigate new legislation intended to create Australia’s personally controlled e-health record (PCEHR) system after the two relevant bills were referred to the Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs last week.
Patient engagement a must for e-record plan
A UK study highlighting the failure of the National Health Service’s patient-controlled e-health record has led experts to caution Australian policy-makers against failing to engage health consumers. From 2007 to 2010, more than 2.4 million people in the UK were invited to open a HealthSpace patient-controlled e-health record, but as of October this year only 173,000 had done so. After surveying a sample of patients who had signed up, researchers concluded that “patients perceived HealthSpace as neither useful nor easy to use”. Lead author Professor Trish Greenhalgh from the London School of Medicine and Dentistry said ...
Lack of public engagement blamed for failure of online record
A BRITISH study highlighting the failure of the National Health Service’s personal health record has led e-health experts to caution local policy-makers against failing to engage with health consumers. The study revealed that while more than 2.4 million people received letters inviting them to open an account with HealthSpace, the UK version of a personal health record, just 173,000 had done so. Researchers also surveyed patients who had opened an account, and found that the record was perceived as “neither useful nor easy to use”. Lead author Professor Trisha Greenhalgh from the London School ...
Concerns held for funding of e-health trials
A QUEENSLAND division charged with trialling national standards for electronic health records in collaboration with NEHTA has expressed fears the funding could dry up before development work is complete. Brisbane-based GPpartners – one of three divisions last week charged with trialling the standards – originally established a Health Records Exchange (HRX) system funded by the Howard government’s Cooperative Research Centres program in 2005. But its deputy chief executive Brett Silvester said he “lives in fear” of short-sighted approaches, having previously seen federal funding for the development of the HRX axed in 2007. Since then, GPpartners has ...
Too soon for hallelujahs?
Are personalised e-health records truly the solution to the system’s ills? In the final of her series, Caroline Brettingham-Moore finds the experts are less than confident.
E-health summaries unreliable as sole source of patient records
ELECTRONIC summary care records (SCRs) provide little benefit to primary health care, a large British study suggests. The study, which analysed quantitative data of more than 400,000 primary care consultations, found that where SCRs were available, health professionals only accessed them in 21% of patient encounters. Overall, SCRs were accessed in just 4% of patient encounters. A qualitative analysis of the data found that clinicians did not view the SCR as the sole source of reliable data. “Rather, they drew eclectically on multiple sources, including the patient, electronic and paper records, and their own observations and ...
Senate gives healthcare identifiers Bill green light
AFTER months of uncertainty the Healthcare Identifiers Bill has finally been passed by the Senate. The legislation, passed in the dying hours of Parliament before the winter recess, will enable all Australians and healthcare providers to be indentified by a unique 16-digit number. Medicare will have allocated 98% of Australian’s an individual healthcare identifier by Monday. National E-Health Transition Authority clinical lead Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said the Government and the Coalition should be congratulated for making e-health a priority. “Great credit is to be given to the Government for persevering with this and so too ...
NEHTA set to miss deadline for identifier numbers
THE National e-Health Transition Authority is almost certain to miss its 1 July deadline to begin the national rollout of its healthcare identifier numbers, after the necessary legislation was delayed in Federal Parliament. Senate debate on the Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 has now been pushed back to 11 May. However, given this is scheduled to be a short parliamentary session ahead of the federal Budget, there is no guarantee the legislation will be passed on this date. National e-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) clinical lead Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said this would “absolutely cause a delay” in the program, ...
Kickstart e-health revolution locally, experts tell GPs
GPs would be better off focusing on local e-health solutions rather than waiting for Government leadership and funding, according to an e-health expert. In his review of the nation’s e-health strategy, Dr Steve Hodgkinson (PhD), public sector research director at telecommunications analyst firm Ovum, said despite $5 billion in investment in various e-health initiatives, the country was no closer to a national approach to e-health. Given the pace of change to date, it was unrealistic for health professionals to expect a sudden appearance of a national strategy, he told MO, and the key was to focus on ...
Former staffers in dispute with e-health body
ACCUSATIONS are flying between the National E-Health Transition Authority and two former staff members, with the authority claiming the pair used confidential information to set up an alternative patient information system. Peter West and Philip Johnson launched the StarDIAD system late last year, after they had departed NEHTA. However, the authority claims the pair breached their terms of employment by using the authority’s confidential information and intellectual property to develop a rival system while they were still under contract. NEHTA has been involved in developing parameters for a system of unique health identifiers (UHIs) due to be ...
Reward GPs for selling e-health to specialists
GPs are best placed to drive the e-health agenda and should be incentivised to encourage specialists and other health professionals to sign up to e-health systems, experts argue. NSW Rural Doctors’ Association president Dr Ian Kamerman said while GPs were early adopters of e-health solutions, until other professions came onboard the system would not reach its full potential. He called on the Government to offer incentives to GPs and divisions that educate specialist and allied health colleagues. “No [specialists] in our area are interested in secure messaging – [GPs] have the capability but no one to ...
E-health benefits don’t justify costs
A REPORT commissioned by the Government has conceded that the cost of signing up to the e-health agenda currently outweighs the benefits for most doctors, and calls for the introduction of new financial incentives. The National E-Health Strategy – drawn up by Deloitte and handed to the Federal Government in September last year – lists the recommendation as one of a series on how to drive e-health forward. Priority areas listed in the strategy include building the technical and legislative foundations of an e-health system, accelerating delivery of e-health solutions and encouraging healthcare providers to sign on. ...
Electronic patient discharge summaries finally take shape
ELECTRONIC discharge summaries are finally on the horizon, with the release of new standards from the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), but a leading IT expert has questioned the complexity of the specifications. The electronic discharge summaries have long been touted as a measure that would improve continuity of care, and the new blueprint now outlines their design and content. Under the standards, the discharge summaries will contain a patient’s personal identification, medical history, procedures carried out and medications prescribed. However, according to health IT consultant Dr David More, the complexity of specifications on the template ...
Plan to link rebate access to GPs’ e-health capability
DOCTORS have welcomed the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) report’s e-health recommendations, but have questioned the intent of linking Medicare rebates to e-health capabilities. The e-health proposals, which cost an estimated $1.8 billion, include person-controlled electronic health records for all Australians by 2012. However, the NHHRC also called on the Government to mandate that payments for health and aged care services should eventually be dependent on the provider’s ability to transmit information to a patient’s personal e-health record, and to other health providers. Health IT consultant Dr David More said he was “deeply uncomfortable” ...
E-health plan lacks detail
EXPERTS have welcomed the release of draft proposals for patient and professional identifier numbers, but have argued key information is missing from the government plan. Released by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, the proposals outline the creation of 16-digit identifiers for each individual, healthcare professional and healthcare organisation in the country. The system, developed by the National E-health Transition Authority (NEHTA), has been lauded by the authority and the Federal Government as a means to improve patient care and reduce preventable errors, such as incorrect prescribing. The Government plans to roll out the identifiers – ...
Current e-health PIPs a disincentive for GPs
A leading e-health expert is warning that the Federal Government needs to boost its financial incentives for GPs if it is to push ahead with its e-health agenda. Speaking at the summit in Sydney last week, Dr Leonie Katekar, director of the National E-Health Transition Authority’s clinical unit, said current practice incentive payments (PIPs) were not encouraging GPs to take note of the e-health agenda. “There’s no incentive to do anything. We’re paid to see a patient every six minutes, we’re not paid for outcomes,” she said. “Australia has started to invest [in e-health], but we don’t ...
D-day looms for e-health standards
THE Federal Government has just 12 months to set the ground rules for e-health standards before a national, unified e-health system slips from its grasp, experts have warned. Leader of the team which authored the Deloitte’s National E-Health Strategy, Adam Powick, said without a clear direction, smaller e-health trials and projects would continue to develop and forge ahead according to their own standards, leading to an increasingly fragmented system. There would come a time when the cost and effort required to align these systems would prove so great that the cost of implementing, for example, a national ...
Practices face $50,000 loss under PIP changes
PRACTICES could fall victim to bureaucratic mismanagement and risk losing future payments of up to $50,000 per year under new requirements for a key Practice Incentive Payment (PIP). New guidelines for the PIP for e-health released last week by the Department of Health and Ageing revealed practices must have a secure messaging service provided by an “eligible supplier” if they are to continue to qualify for as much as $12,500 in quarterly payments. However, the Government has not delivered a list of eligible suppliers, which last week sparked widespread anxiety among GPs and a flurry of phone ...
e-health's Mr Fix-it?
Will business go-getter and former Coca-Cola chair David Gonski be able to speed up the drive towards a national e-health system? Kathryn Eccles reports. YOU could say David Gonski has been thrown in at the deep end. But that would be an understatement. Thrown into shark-infested waters without a raft might be more of a reality. However, given his experience chairing organisations such as Coca-Cola Amatil, Investec Bank (Australia) and the Australian Securities Exchange, Mr Gonski is in a better position than most to swim to safety in his new role as chair of ...
E-health privacy threat for small towns
THE federal government’s plans to roll out patient e-health records could cause serious problems for those in small communities if strict privacy protocols are not in place, the Consumers’ Health Forum has warned. In a submission to the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), the forum raised questions around the levels of access health professionals would have to patient records. In particular, it expressed concern that if health professionals were given unfettered access to health records containing highly sensitive information, patients in small towns with specific conditions may find themselves stigmatised. “If more people know information, or ...
New chief for NEHTA
THE National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has appointed Peter Fleming as its new chief executive. Mr Fleming has a strong background in technology, previously working with major companies including National Australia Bank, Coles Myer, Colonial, Vodafone and Mayne. Mr Fleming has yet to outline any priorities for the authority, saying he would prefer to first “study where we’re at with the strategy”. However, he did not hold concerns that some individual states were pushing ahead with their own individual e-health strategies, noting such work might produce nationally applicable models.
E-health discussion paper ahead of its time, literally: expert
A NATIONAL e-Health Transition Authority discussion paper on an e-health patient and provider identification system has been labelled as premature by a health IT expert. The paper, E-Health ID , has been released ahead of a $1.3 million government funded report from consultancy firm Deloitte, which is expected to indicate what NEHTA’s future direction should be. Health IT consultant Dr David More said while NEHTA was under pressure, it had to “deliver results on what’s needed, not what they think should be needed”. However, AMA e-health committee chair Dr Peter Garcia-Webb said unless ...
Ready, set… slow
What’s the hold-up on a national, linked electronic health system? Kathryn Eccles finds out. BEING called to hospital at 2 am to assess a patient with chest pain is part of an average week for Dr Peter Rischbieth. At his most recent early morning call-out, the RDAA president would have been forced to rely on a 73-year-old patient and her relatives for a medical history were it not for his computerised practice. But a few clicks of the mouse were all that was needed to compare the patient’s current ECG with one from a month ...