Maroba Lodge
Maroba is a 155 bed facility in NSW who recently participated in the beta testing program for the Medical Director 3 (MD3) / iCare interface; eLink: iCare. eLink: iCare enables a passage for the health information a doctor enters into MD3 to appear in iCare’s Clinical, Care and Medication Management software to provide a more complete picture of a resident’s true health condition.
This module provides care and nursing staff with the ability to view information GPs enter into Medical Director whilst at the facility. GP information available in iCare are resident demographics, prescriptions, investigations, medical history, allergies, diabetes, and immunisation information.
The beta testing program was very successful at Maroba primarily due to the commitment their participating GPs demonstrated in utilising the interface. In order for the interface to produce any actual benefits, GPs must commit to using MD3 onsite. The information entered into MD3 is then able to be transmitted so that it appears in iCare. This reduces duplicate data entry for GPs and also gives clinical staff access to information about a resident that would otherwise be time consuming or difficult to obtain.
Director of Hostel and Self Care Unit Services at Maroba, Leeanne Dove explains, “In the past, following a GP’s visit staff re-entered information from that visit into a resident’s progress notes in iCare. Having this information transmitted directly from MD3 into iCare, and visible within an individual’s resident details page will definitely save time as well as transcription or interpretation errors.”
Having access to recent medical information from a GP has enabled knowledge sharing between GPs and clinical staff to ensure the best possible care path for a resident is followed and the best health outcomes for residents are achieved.
By having this information at their fingertips, Maroba’s clinical staff have the ability to answer questions that may arise from third parties such as pharmacy and allied health. Most importantly, they have the information available at the click of a button, saving a great deal of time checking information with the resident’s GP.
Leeanne explains, “Without the information linking to iCare from MD3, staff have to look in several areas to find the appropriate information to answer questions. Generally, in our low care facility, care staff do not have access to the information in MD3 and are therefore disadvantaged if they need to answer questions from our pharmacy which are not noted in progress notes in iCare.”
“With eHealth being the way of the future, and staffing levels expected to be an issue as our aged care population grows, it is imperative that our systems are able to ‘speak’ to one another effectively and transfer of information between systems to be secure. eLink: iCare has gone a long way to meeting this need.” Leeanne said.
Leeanne Dove
Director of Hostel and Self Care Unit Services
