eHealth

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What is the iHealth Care Directory & Secure Messaging?
Providers in Our region capable of secure electronic communications

 

On-line Business - Electronic Communication

With the introduction of high speed internet access the range of business functions that can be performed on-line by general practice is extensive. These functions may include:

  • electronic referrals (eReferrals)
  • receipt of pathology and radiology results
  • real-time access to clinical best practice guidelines
  • remote access to practice systems anytime anywhere
  • remote technical support services from their IT vendor
  • on-line banking functions, a range of Medicare Australia Online Initiatives
    • enhanced data quality through online verification of patient benefits eligibility,
    • on-line claiming/billing functions, and
    • PBS Authorities

Secure communications between health care providers is achieved through a security process known as PKI.
What is PKI?

How to obtain a PKI certificate

Tips for Installing PKI.

The range of options available and their practical application and value to general practice will be different for each practice. If you have an interest in investigating any of these options please contact the IM/IT Program Manager at the Alliance for further guidance.

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What is the iHealth Care Directory & Secure Messaging?

The iHealth Care Directory (the Directory) is a listing of where GPs work in Queensland and how they can most effectively be contacted. The Directory also includes specialist and allied health professionals contact details. This will ultimately make the Directory a central and authoritative source of health providers’ contact details to enable secure communication of patient information across Queensland. The Directory’s primary purpose is to transfer clinical patient information e.g. discharge summaries and specialist referrals from one health provider to another.

Medical-Objects has been awarded a two year licence by iHealth Care to provide a free secure messaging service to GPs, specialists and allied health professionals. This will provide a free Medical-Objects licence until 30 June 2010. Now doctors can use secure medical messaging to send patient data safely and securely over the Internet using the Medical Objects messaging service which is not email based but a fit for purpose clinical communication system.

Medical Objects Application Process

Tips For Making PKI Easy To Install

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Medicare Australia Online Initiatives

Medicare Australia On-line Claims offers a range of services that could enhance your business operations and patient billing satisfaction. Each practice operates in a different manner and as such the value of adopting On-line Claims varies from practice to practice. A range of Case Studies titled “Doing Business Online” have been developed by Medicare Australia in consultation with a range of GP practices that provide valuable insight into the value of on-line business functions offered by adopting Medicare Australia On-line Claims.

On 31 December 2009, the Transitional Support Package (TSP) one-off lump sum and 18 cents incentive payments ended. Final payments were made in mid January 2010.


Doing Business Online Case Studies (Medicare Australia)

Also see the LINKS Tab...

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Healthcare Providers in the SEA-GP (Brisbane) Region capable of secure electronic communications.

The following is a list of healthcare service providers within the SEA-GP (Brisbane) region who are able to communicate with fellow healthcare service providers using secure electronic communications.


This list is constantly under review with additions made as and when SEA-GP (Brisbane) are advised of the availability of these services.  If you are aware of a service provider who is capable and willing to communicate with other health care services providers using secure electronic communications please advise the Alliance's IM/IT Program Manager by phone or email.

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Turbo-Charge your Pathology Results!

Are you gaining the maximum value from your electronic investigation result downloads? Do you want your investigation result downloads to populate your clinical records? If so, then it is time to review and possibly change the format that your results are provided in.

There are two technical formats primarily used for results: PIT (Pathology Information Transfer); and HL7 (Health Level Seven). By default investigation service providers will provide your electronic investigation results in PIT format. Practices wishing to receive their results in HL7 format need to contact their various pathology providers to request this change.

The benefit of HL7 investigation result downloads includes:

  • Graphic displays of pathology data e.g. LDL levels over the last 12 months;
  • Auto-population of diabetes assessment with pathology readings rather than having to re-key data;
  • Potential to have alerting based on values, e.g. those patients with a HBA1C >7.0mmol; and
  • Ability to conduct database searches based on data values incorporated in the health record through HL7 downloads

To view HL7 atomic data, go to the pathology-results tag, then click the cumulative results button, which will list all the pathology entities e.g. HDL, Uric acid, Trigs, then click the graph button. One can then graph any of these values. Great to show patients during the consultation to motivate for change.

There are also HL7 standards for referrals, discharge summaries and prescriptions. Implementation of these standards will mean being able to send scripts to the pharmacy electronically and receiving discharge patient summaries from the hospital electronically, which will mean less paper to print, less re-keying of patient information, and the ability to better manage patients.

Additional Resources:
If you require further guidance in relation to HL7 Downloads please contact the IM/IT Program Manager by emailing or phoning the Alliance. 

Useful Links

  • Medicare Australia - Doing Business Online Information Sheets
    This part fo the Medicare Australia website provides a list of various publications that describe the benefits and processes for using the online business functions.

  • Medicare Australia Online Initiatives
    Details of the various Medicare Australia Online Initiatives can be access through the menus on the left hand side of this homepage of Medicare Australia.  Also you will find the latest details of any new Medicare Australia Online Initiatives.
  • Software Vendors offering Online Claiming
    Medicare Australia website which provides details of the various software vendors which support online claiming.  The range of Medicare Australia Online services is provided with individual software vendor details indicating if the software product supports the various online function.