ACT Government to invest $35M more for digital health record

The ACT government is expected to invest over A$50M ($35 million) for the full implementation of a state-wide digital health record this year.

This comes on top of the A$151 million funding provided under the 2018-19 budget for the project, which will be delivered by American EMR provider Epic across Canberra’s public hospitals and community health centres. 

According to ACT Health, the digital health record will allow the real-time capture of information and provide access to historical information. 

Compared to the federal government's My Health Record system, ACT's digital health record will be more detailed as it will be a record of all interactions between a Canberran citizen and the ACT public health system. 

Latrobe Community Health to roll out Global Health's EMR solutions

Gippsland-based Latrobe Community Health Service is set to adopt the MasterCare EMR solutions by ASX-listed healthcare software provider Global Health.

Based on a media release, Global Health will be providing its MasterCare EMR, Data Warehouse, MasterCare Connect, e-switch integration, and ReferralNet messaging app.

According to Global Health, its MasterCare solutions will enable the community health service to "improve continuity of care across multi-disciplinary service teams; improve patient outcomes through automated workflows; streamline data collection; make better decision making at the point of care with mobile solutions; digitise referral management processes; and improve coordination across all their services".

Latrobe chose Global Health for its ability to manage the size and complexity of healthcare delivery that it offers while being able to scale as it grows its services over the years. The health service provides care in over 50 sites which extends to metropolitan Melbourne.

Western Australia launches online resource site for advanced care planning

The government of Western Australia has launched an online portal for accessing resources for advanced care planning.

The website contains an advanced care planning guide for consumers and health professionals, a guide to completing their Advance Health Directive (AHD), and other online content.

The AHD is a legal document that people sign to allow their treatments to be recorded if they become unable to communicate such decisions themselves.

It is one of the advanced care planning documents that enable Western Australians to record and share their preferences and decisions; the other documents include the Values and Preferences form and Enduring Powers of Guardianship. 

The online portal was developed following the recommendation given by the WA Parliament's Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices, which found that only 7.5% of the state's population had adequately planned their health and personal care. 

"The new resources will benefit not only Western Australians approaching their end of life but anyone who wants to make their treatment decisions, values, and beliefs known," WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson commented.