Issue 3
Recommendations from the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (NHHRC)
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The report released this week by the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission provides recommendations to transform the Australian health care system.
Of note in the NHHRC’s recommendations was around the innovative use of eHealth in aged care. These recommendations included:
 increased use of electronic clinical records in aged care homes
a person-controlled electronic health record for older people and their carers
the capacity for electronic prescribing by attending medical and other credentialed practitioners
the timely provision of pertinent information on a person’s hospital care to the clinical staff of their aged care provider - subject to patient consent
What does this mean for Australian aged care providers?
Clearly the momentum for using electronic systems in aged care is gaining force and it is now a question of how you use your own system to move health information
both internally in your aged care facility and externally - whether that be with your pharmacy, GP or the Government.
Key responses to the NHHRC’s recommendations can be summarised as:
Electronic Health Record
A new dawn is arriving in aged care. We are moving from capturing simple care documentation and transcending into an environment of a single person health record. The person centered
electronic health record will encapsulate the clinical records from the aged care facility, but will also electronically combine GP records and the electronic medication charts using pharmacy data.
This will enable nursing and care staff to view internal and external health information within one single application.
Hospital Transfers
An electronic health record forms the basis of the exchange of health care information between an aged care facility and a hospital when a resident needs short term acute care. Aged care providers
that have established clinical systems that have a complete electronic health record will be able to seamlessly integrate with a hospital system as the two areas of health begin to work together.
ePrescribing
Electronic prescribing, which eliminates paper scripts, is an area that has particular relevance for the aged care industry. Already electronic prescribing is operating in parallel with the existing
paper prescription system in Australia through solutions such as eRx Script Exchange (www.erx.com.au). To get ready for the eventual move to ePrescribing, proactive aged care providers are beginning to utilise
electronic medication charts, with particular emphasis on the change management required for nursing & care staff and the pharmacy. Once ePrescribing is enabled in Australia, without the parallel
paper prescription system, an aged care provider will have processes bedded down internally to connect straight into the ePrescribing system.
Kind regards,
Chris Gray
Managing Director, iCare
 Pdf version for print.
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