GP standards ensures e-health adoption
18 February 2010. Australia’s first standards for e-health to be published in the next Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for General Practices (4th edition) will ensure that Australia continues to lead the way for quality and safety standards in general practice.
The RACGP Standards for General Practices is the benchmark against which general practices are surveyed for accreditation and are a fundamental commitment by Australian GPs and general practices to quality and safety for patients.
The 4th edition of the Standards will lead the way in showing general practitioners how e-health will work within their practice and assist them to incorporate the necessary changes as primary care continues to rapidly evolve in Australia.
Dr Chris Mitchell, RACGP President and GP in northern New South Wales said that Australia is at the forefront of GP accreditation in the world and a benchmark against which other countries have based their systems.
“GPs are at the centre of the health care system in Australia. They work at a very high capacity, requiring a high level of skills in a variety of environments. Within that they provide a continuity of care and their work has become increasingly complex.
“GPs use a variety of different systems and the RACGP Standards must allow for a high level of interoperability to allow data to be moved safely and without errors.
“GPs are increasingly reliant on computers for patient care and there are immense benefits that could arise from an Australian health sector operating as an inter-connected system, avoiding duplication and reducing errors,” he said.
Approximately 80 per cent of Australian general practices are formally accredited against the RACGP Standards.
To ensure that GPs can deliver the highest standard of care to their patients, the RACGP is ensuring that the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) is informed of what is reasonable, workable and useful for GPs when leading the progression of e-health in Australia.
NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for e-health in Australia.
NEHTA’s National Clinical Lead Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, a former commissioner with the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission and a past AMA President, said GPs are at the forefront of e-health reform.
“For GPs, e-health is about using technology to support and improve the way healthcare is delivered. They will be able to do their work far more effectively and efficiently with e-health due to greater access to information that is timely, accurate and secure, compared to paper systems.
“A flow-on effect of this will be a safer and higher quality system for patients,” he said.
For this reason, the RACGP, which is the largest professional general practice representative body in Australia and the largest representative body for rural general practice, is determined that GPs and their practice team’s take the lead in the adoption of e-health in Australia.
The 4th edition of the RACGP Standards for General Practices will be launched at the RACGP annual conference – GP’10 – that will be held in Cairns in October 2010.
For further information and media interviews please contact:
Donna Le Page on 0412 797 937
RACGPThe Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is the professional organisation that sets and maintains the standards for quality clinical practice, education, training and research in Australian general practice and represents Australia’s urban and rural general practitioners.