The development and introduction of an eHealth Initiative in Australia provides a new and exciting topic for discussion, thus this initial blog is an attempt to provide an outline to the topic for further investigation.
The eHealth Record in the Australian context refers to a Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) System. This system comprises of an interconnected database of patient health records, providing authorised healthcare professionals access to critical patient information with relative ease and in a much less time consuming manner than is currently available. The eHealth initiative in Australia is centered around the idea of being consumer friendly with the public having to ‘opt-in’ to having an eHealth record, and also having decision making abilities around which specific heath information can be viewed by particular health professionals. The ability to sign up for a PCEHR in Australia began in July 2012, about eight months ago, therefore at this stage the program remains in its infancy and the full potential is yet to be realised.
Some of the main components of the eHealth initiative in Australia include:
- Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR): The cornerstone of the eHealth program in Australia. This record will consolidate the many separate health and dispensing records that are currently held for the patient with their GP, Specialist, Pharmacy and from previous Hospital visits. More information about PCEHR for consumers and healthcare professionals can be found at http://publiclearning.ehealth.gov.au/
- Opt-in and Opt Out Function: This component applies to both patients and healthcare providers. Patients and Healthcare providers are required to voluntarily sign up to be a part of the eHealth record system. In the instance of patients they also have the power to decide to opt-out of the system if they no longer want to keep their eHealth record.
- Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (ETP): currently being rolled out and is currently used in the majority of Australian pharmacies in the form of bar coded eRx paper prescriptions. The continuation and roll out of this initiative is a component of the 5th Community Pharmacy Agreement negotiated between the Australian Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. The purpose of ETP is to make the process of dispensing medications more precise and to eliminate dispensing errors. In its full implementation, the system will do away with the need for paper prescriptions. The patients prescription details will be uploaded on to their secure eHealth record at the time of prescribing. The patient may then choose to have their initial dispensing (and all subsequent repeats) filled at any community pharmacy of their choice in Australia. All prescription transfer of information will take place over the electronic prescription exchange which is in turn linked to the individual patient record, allowing a more holistic view of medication, prescribing and dispensing history. This program will eventually deal with the problem of lost prescriptions and cut down the industries impact on the environment through the excessive need for paper. For more information about ETP check out the following interactive link http://prezi.com/vwz-csacweld/v2-etp-education-program/
There are many issues and benefits for Pharmacists that are set to arise with the rolling out of this program, hopefully we will be able to delve into some of these within this forum.
More information about the eHealth initiative and ETP can be found at http://www.ehealth.gov.au and http://www.5cpa.com.au
E-Health Blog 2013 