Big e-Health Solution at Barwon Health
Barwon Health is in the process of implementing one of the most comprehensive e-health solutions in Australia. It involves 21 sites, 973 beds and over 5000 employees, stretching along the Victorian coast from Geelong to Lorne.Daily around 400,000 messages are shared between health care professionals across Barwon Health’s secure electronic network. Electronic information transmission means fewer re-admissions, less duplication of services, and a reduction in associated health risks to individual patients.
A unique identifier and shared health record is automatically generated for any patient who presents at a Barwon Health facility, removing the need for faxing paper records or multiple phone calls between health providers. Referrals and other results can also be flagged for follow-up at a later date, which is another advantage over a paper-based system.
Ease of use is a cornerstone of the Barwon Health system. Most of the different programs used by health care professionals, such as those for displaying pathology and radiology results, have already been integrated into a parent system. This streamlines tiresome tasks such as continually logging in or opening different packages.
Total interoperability between all programs is the end goal and this is a continual process, with more packages being integrated into the parent program on an ongoing basis. Pathology results, medical records, digital prescriptions, stock orders, referrals and radiology results are all currently able to be accessed through one parent program.
Many electronic systems, although well designed, suffer because health care professionals find them cumbersome or time-consuming to use. Health care professionals were involved in the development of the Barwon Health system to facilitate widespread acceptance. Many of the IT specialists had actually previously worked in the health sector.
One example of the ease of use is the way the confidential medical information of each patient is accessed at hospitals. For security purposes each access to a health record is logged and shared terminals within hospitals can only be used by a combination of card and pin. As the system builds towards total interoperability, the number of times that this pin has to be entered will reduce to one, and each user is automatically logged out once their card is removed from a workstation. When the user accesses a different terminal, the process returns the user to the exact same point as before with no information loss and identical programs open.
“This new system is far superior to the paper-based method and other electronic systems I’ve previously worked with. The facilities have been built to function clinically after talking to doctors and the results are amazing,” said Intensive Care Specialist Dr Charlie Cooke.
Security is assured as each access to a patient’s record is logged and each person with access has previously signed a confidentiality agreement. In the past staff have been disciplined and even dismissed due to unauthorised access, however this is rare.
At the hospital level each electronic record also allows for handover notes. In the past these were verbally passed between different teams at the end of a shift, a haphazard method that led to information loss. With a simple change, more information can be recorded and passed, reducing the chance for error.
In excess of 90 percent of GP’s in the Barwon Health area have now done away with paper-based records. These GP’s have the capacity to receive discharge summaries, operation notes, outpatient letters and information on discharge medications electronically. This information then uploads into the appropriate software package, again facilitating ease of use.
Mental Health is one area of Barwon Health that has benefited greatly from electronic communication between different departments. Previously when a patient presented at an Emergency Department after suffering an acute mental episode, the staff had no access to their medical history. That patient’s record can now be accessed immediately, so they can be provided with more appropriate care. The Emergency Department then add to this record and work with regional teams and other professionals to ensure better preventative and ongoing care.
Currently Barwon Health is nearly finished scanning all existing paper-based records to allow electronic access to historical files. From late October 2008 the Intensive Care Unit at Geelong Hospital will then begin using an electronic prescription interface. The aim is to slowly roll this system out over the entire network.