South Australian hospitals and community health providers are to ditch fax machines and snail mail for sharing patient information in favour of a new secure messaging service from SA Health.
Chief Digital Health Officer at SA Health, Bret Morris said the new technology was being rolled out following a successful trial run in partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency.
Mr Morris said Secure Messaging allowed hospitals and healthcare providers, including general practitioners, private specialists and allied health professionals to communicate with each safely and securely; share important patient information faster; and improve patient care.
“It reduces the use of fax machines and post, improving accuracy, privacy and the speed in which clinical documents can continue to be shared between sites,” Mr Morris said.
He said the first stage of the rollout allowed discharge summaries to be sent directly to participating health providers, giving them access to accurate and up-to-date patient summaries.
“Since the service was launched, around 40,000 discharge summaries have been sent out from SA Health sites which includes both metropolitan and regional based hospitals,” Mr Morris said.
“The system is being rolled out in a phased approach with eligible health providers sent a direct invitation to jump on board and around 10 practices being activated each day,” he said.
“Over time, the system will expand to include other documents like electronic outpatient referrals, specialist letters and other communications from SA Health so community health providers can receive an accurate reflection of a patient’s overall healthcare.”
Mr Morris said the Secure Messaging service was active at all Local Health Networks using either the Sunrise Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or the Open Architecture Clinical Information System (OACIS).
Further information on Secure Messaging can be accessed at this PS News link.
