Issue 20
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all at iCare
With the year almost at a close, iCare would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous
New Year. As this is our last edition for 2009 we thought it would the ideal time to recap on some of the topics we have covered over this year
and what 2010 holds for aged care and eHealth.
In October ’09 NeHTA released their strategic plan for 2009-2012 which clearly showed stakeholders across the health sector the direction they
are taking to drive the take-up and adoption of e-health nationally. It is important that you are aware and understand NEHTA’s strategic plan to
ensure you prepared in 2010, especially with the introduction of Healthcare Identifiers.
Earlier this month, The Council of Australian Governments signed the agreement to provide the legislative, governance and administrative framework
for national Healthcare Identifiers which are planned to commence operation in July 2010.
Aged care providers need to ensure that their software vendor, or potential vendor, provides a system which allows for healthcare identifier input.
This will allow aged care providers to, for example, link medication information, GP records, hospital discharge summaries and finance systems creating
a more complete, person centered record.
On behalf of our customers, iCare has spent significant time in understanding the Healthcare Identifiers and we do believe they are the keys to
unlocking electronic health records in Australia. iCare will be ready for the planned introduction of the Healthcare Identifiers in the second half of
2010 and will be able to deliver their full benefits to our customers.
Another hot topic during 2009 was electronic medication management. NeHTA has it as a key focus on their agenda and the Aged Care Industry IT Council
recently put forth a business case for electronic medication management in aged care. Aged care providers need to be proactively assessing their own
medication management processes and their ability to implement an electronic system. The aged care industry is rapidly moving to utilise electronic
systems to mitigate risk, especially in the area of medication management. In 2010, iCare will be working with all of our customers to ensure they are
putting in place the systems that will enable connection to the proposed whole of aged care eHealth exchange put forward by the Aged Care
Industry IT Council.
Looking forward to 2010, electronic systems will play a crucial role in the aged care industry. Aged care is in a position to show leadership in eHealth
and enable significant benefits, with the key achievement of delivering improved health outcomes for aged care residents.
Kind regards,
Chris Gray
Managing Director
 Pdf version for print.
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