Alison Verhoeven, Senior Executive at Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), told FutureGov Asia Pacific that the web site is expected to introduce a new level of transparency and accountability in Australia’s healthcare sector.
Users of the portal will be able to search for hospitals by name or use an interactive map to find information on services offered by each provider and the accessibility of the hospital.
The data published includes emergency department waiting times for financial years 2008–09 and 2009-10.
Meanwhile, admissions and outpatients’ information for 2008-09 will be updated in early 2011 when more recent data becomes available.
Verhoeven said that an important aspect of MyHospitals is helping the users interpret the data with ease.
“Too much information might be distracting rather than helpful. We need to make the web site simple and allow people to find the real information they need,” she said.
In the initial stage, only public hospitals will be included. And gradually, statistics from private hospitals will also be made available.
There have already been criticisms from politicians and the media regarding concerns over accuracy and currency of the data released.
But Federal Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon assured the public that the AIHW, which is “an independent and very credible body”, had put in place checks and balances to ensure the data is reliable.
“The performance data on the website are for the most recent financial year, 2009-10,” noted Penny Allbon, Director of AIHW. “This is the earliest these data have ever been published at a national level.”
Verhoeven added it is important to manage people’s expectations: “We need to make people understand that we are not providing real time information on how many parking lots are available or which doctor is free. For such information, they should ring up the hospital directly,” she said.
“We provide quality information for them to understand the quality of different hotels.”
Yusuf Mansuri, First Assistant Secretary of Department of Human Services, Australia Capital Territory, told FutureGov Asia Pacific: “It is very important to make doctors accountable for what they do. If they lose the licence, they will end up on the welfare system, which we are responsible for.”
Among the 922 hospitals listed on MyHospitals, 769 are public and 153 private.
MyHospitals will be updated regularly when new statistics become available, subject to approval by state health ministers, the guardian’s of hospital data.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jianggan Li
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 13.12.2010
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