The Territory’s new Digital Health Record (DHR) has been officially rolled out to record all interactions between the people of Canberra and the city’s public health services.
Welcoming the DHR, the Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen-Smith said it was one of the biggest projects ever undertaken in the ACT’s public health system and its implementation had been going well.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the DHR will record all interactions between a person and ACT public health services, including Canberra’s major public hospitals, community health centres and Walk-in Centres.
“Considering the scale of the DHR project, teams have done an incredible job in implementing the new system,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“As expected with any project of this size, there have been some teething issues,” she said.
“Staff have been fantastic in coming forward with feedback and working together to find solutions to issues as they arise.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said more than 8,000 workers logged on to use the DHR in its first week of operation.
She said that in the system’s first three days, ACT Health answered more than 300 calls and emails from members of the community, with most of the calls relating to the consumer portal for the DHR, MyDHR.
“Most calls from Canberrans related to login access or questions about information in their MyDHR,” the Minister said.
“ACT Health has worked to respond to these phone calls quickly, aiming to keep wait times to a minimum and to return calls within the same day if required.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said that following its first week of implementation, ACT Health was continuing with a public information campaign to inform Canberrans about the benefits of the DHR, the security measures in place and how to access MyDHR.
“While this is a very exciting time, I know some staff members are understandably feeling anxious as they learn a new system,” she said.
“Healthcare workers have shown great professionalism in adapting to the DHR while continuing to provide care for patients.
“I want to thank everyone involved for their enthusiasm, collegiality and resilience in the lead-up to and through go-live,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Further information on MyDHR can be accessed at this PS News link.
