The Gillard government's PCEHR system is supposed to be operational from July 1.
But the National E-Health Transition Authority has revealed "activity in the e-health sites to date has focused on recruitment of (GP) practices and connection to the (Medicare-operated) Healthcare Identifiers service".
Three former GP divisions (now rebadged as Medicare Locals) -- in Brisbane North, Hunter Valley, NSW and in Melbourne East -- each received $5 million in mid-2010 to implement software supporting the PCEHR system and to trial the use of records by doctors and patients. "Those (lead) sites that are operating local repositories will commence operations over the coming weeks," NEHTA said in answers to questions put by senator Sue Boyce and released last Thursday. "NEHTA specifications are being used in the point-to-point exchange of clinical documents in the e-health sites. However, it is impossible to count how many of these documents are being exchanged."
Last month, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek appeared to step away from promises that the PCEHR would be fully operational from July 1. Ms Plibersek told a Gold Coast conference she was "determined not to rush" the introduction and warned that just as the Snowy River scheme took years to build, the e-health system would "grow and evolve in a similar way". She said: "This isn't a matter of flick a switch on July 1 and away you go."
The Australian reported on March 29 that doctors do not have the software they need to load e-health records on to the new system, and all a patient may be able to do on July 1 was to register their interest at a Medicare office.
At the Senate estimates hearing in February, Senator Boyce asked NEHTA how many patient records had been created in the course of the $15m implementation at the three sites, as well as at the nine "second wave" sites allocated more than $70m by former health minister Nicola Roxon.
The Community Affairs Committee had heard that patient recruitment plans were disrupted following the discovery that trial sites were working to software specifications that were different to those used for the national infrastructure. Metro North Brisbane Medicare Local chief executive Abbe Anderson said a mailout to potential patient recruits on January 30 had been delayed by a NEHTA-imposed "pause" to resolve the issues.
According to the new information, only 11 clinical documents containing a patient's Individual Healthcare Identifier have been created across the lead sites.
NEHTA said the reported figures were correct as at March 19.
A total of 347 GP practices have been recruited, and 1.3 million records belonging to patients using those practices have been populated with IHIs obtained from the Medicare service.
Every Australian on Medicare's database was assigned an IHI in 2010, although most people remain unaware of the fact.
The three lead sites do not report any "registered and consented" patients who have agreed to take part in e-health record trials.
Progress at the second wave sites is mixed, with St Vincents & Mater Health in Sydney reporting it has created PCEHR records for 3700 patients out of a hoped-for 46,800; Calvary Healthcare in the ACT has 116 consumer recruits out of a targeted 205,000, and Brisbane South reports 48 "registered and consented" patients out of 25,000.
But only 277 healthcare providers at the St Vincents campus have joined the pilot, out of 1930 possible participants.
Also disappointing is the response to the FRED prescriptions system trial in regional Victoria, with only 26 pharmacies out of a targeted 43 taking part.
Meanwhile, NEHTA has shed some light on its own expenditure on contractors in answer to a question on its spending since 2007-08. It provided only a shortlist of the "top 10" consultancies during the past two financial years, saying the "nature of the NEHTA work program requires extensive use of contractors and consultants".
The largest item was the $23.6m contract with IBM Australia for the design and build of the National Authentication Service for Health, funded by the Council of Australian Governments and announced by Ms Roxon in March last year.
Queensland Health received $3.3m to support its preparations for the PCEHR, while NSW Health got $1.35m to "maximise the use of its patient registry" and prepare for the rollout.
Accenture, which leads a consortium that won a $77m contract to build the PCEHR national infrastructure last August, picked up almost $1.4m in other work for NEHTA during the period.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 10.04.2012
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