E-Health benefits spread as Canberra team chosen to lead roll-out
Aged and palliative care patients in the ACT will benefit from better integrated and safer care through e-health systems developed by a team from Canberra that has been chosen as one of nine new projects to lead the roll-out of e-health records.
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29 March 2011
Aged and palliative care patients in the ACT will benefit from better integrated and safer care through e-health systems developed by a team from Canberra that has been chosen as one of nine new projects to lead the roll-out of e-health records.
Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon today announced that Calvary Health Care has been selected as an e-health lead implementation site for the Gillard Government’s $467 million national personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHR) project.
“E-health is one of the critical elements of the Gillard Government’s efforts to modernise our health system through national health reform,” Minister Roxon said.
“This project will bring together doctors and health professionals from general practice, aged and palliative care services in a shared e-health environment,” said Member for Fraser, Andrew Leigh MP.
“When a patient is being cared for, health practitioners such as GPs, specialists and nurses who are chosen by the patient, will have secure, real time access to current clinical records at the point of care.
“This will lead to faster diagnosis and cut down on medication errors as the doctor will be able to see the patient’s medication history,” said Member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann MP.
Calvary Health will be the project lead for the ACT project and will bring together a major grouping of private sector e-health vendors including iSoft, HCN, HealthLink, Smark Health Solutions and Precdence HealthCare together with local hospitals, aged-care facilities and Divisions of General Practice.
Minister Roxon said a key feature of these projects is that they can help to reduce the chance of medical errors and save patients from having to repeat their health history every time they visit a new doctor.
“These projects will lead the roll-out of e-health records for a wide range of patients, including Indigenous Australians in the NT, WA and SA, chronic disease patients in Western Sydney and aged care and palliative patients in Tasmania, NSW and here the ACT,” Ms Roxon said.
“With more than 90 applications received, it’s clear there is a high level of support for e-health. These nine new sites will add to our existing three lead implementation sites that are busy working to implement their program.
“Our 12 e-health lead implementation sites are aiming to have more than half a million Australians enrolled before the national launch of e-health records next year.
“Of course, it’s disappointing that Mr Abbott continues to oppose e-health and refuses to back national health reform.”
The Gillard Government is investing up to $55 million in these nine lead implementation sites as a part of its overall investment of $467 million so that patients will be able to sign up for a personally controlled electronic health records from 1 July 2012.
Details of the lead implementation sites and the National e-Health Conference Report can be downloaded from www.yourhealth.gov.au.
For all media inquiries, please contact the Minister's Office on 02 6277 7220
Media note:
All nine organisations were selected following a competitive process by the Department of Health and Ageing and National E-Health Transition Authority. All organisations managing these projects will now develop their final plans over the next eight weeks to ensure their work programs clearly meet national objectives before receiving final payments to implement the projects.
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