A NEHTA Specification Dashboard provided on March 14 to the ICT Implement Group managing the introduction of the personally controlled e-health record system included an unusual disclaimer.
"'Delivery' does not mean complete in the sense of all components of the specification bundle. NEHTA has provided partial releases of the 'specification bundles' in some situations to support market access to specifications as soon as possible. For example, some Conformance Profiles are yet to be published. Otherwise, components required for software vendors to commence work on NEHTA Specifications are present," it says.
The ICT-IG comprises senior representatives of the Health Department, NEHTA, Medicare and three industry bodies -- the Medical Software Industry Association, the Australian Information Industry Association and the Aged Care IT Vendor Association.
The Australian understands the confidential document, prepared by NEHTA's head of PCEHR architecture on February 2, was provided to the industry representatives at the meeting, but they were not permitted to share it with their members.
Macquarie Dictionary defines "deliver" as: to give forth or produce; to make a delivery of services; to perform a task competently and professionally; come up to expectations.
A Health Department spokeswoman said the dashboard document tabled was provided "as a draft to that meeting to test the appropriateness of the content and presentation for material intended to be shared with the members of the industry associations".
"There were some refinements to this document as a result of the discussion, and the specifications dashboard has since been published," she said.
"The term 'delivered' and the accompanying reference to 'complete' was an acknowledgment that more supporting materials would continue to be delivered.
"The technical specifications have been and remain complete, and materials such as conformance profiles, the Conformance, Compliance and Accreditation tests and test cases continued to be refined with industry representatives at the time the document was discussed in March."
According to the dashboard document, the only PCEHR specification bundles fully available for use were the advanced care directive; the B2B gateway including repository services and conformant repositories; template services and the PCEHR common specifications.
The eDischarge summary, eReferral, event summary, shared health summary and specialist letter each had a specification "delivered", but the implementation guidelines had all been withdrawn pending revision.
The Electronic Medications Management specification was "delivered" by virtue of being a spec produced in 2010; this was withdrawn by NEHTA on February 28, pending development of a revised specification and was available "for information only".
A version of the PCEHR Architecture specification was "delivered" in November 2011, but a revised version is currently in production.
An existing specification for secure messaging was "delivered", but is not currently usable due to a lack of infrastructure, yet to be provided by NEHTA.
The PCEHR consolidated view January forecast for delivery was not met. The core security policy, December 2011 forecast for delivery was not met. The conformant consumer portal January forecast for delivery was not met.
And the National Authentication Service for Health February forecast for delivery was not met and a new time line is still under negotiation.
At a Senate estimates hearing on February 15, Queensland Liberal senator Sue Boyce questioned NEHTA chief executive Peter Fleming over the readiness of specifications for software vendors working on the PCEHR program.
Mr Fleming said 23 bundles of specifications had been made available through a vendors' portal. "That information is there, it is available and we are happy to show anyone," he said.
Senator Boyce: "Does this mean I can use that information today if I were a software developer?"
Mr Fleming: "Absolutely."
Senator Boyce: "Is it fit for practice?"
Mr Fleming: "Absolutely."
Earlier, during the Senate inquiry into the PCEHR bills in February, the MSIA had provided its own assessment of the status of the 23 specification bundles. It found that 12 bundles had not been delivered and a further eight were not considered fit for use.
In a submission from NEHTA dated March 30, after the inquiry ended, Mr Fleming provided "an update and response" to the MSIA's concerns, saying: "NEHTA has made important progress in delivering the key specifications that the vendor community rely on to update their products."
Mr Fleming said 17 were now "complete, final", three had been "de-scoped" for the initial program while a further three -- the NASH, the Security Policy and Consolidated View had all been "rescheduled".
An examination of available specifications by The Australian revealed that most of the "bundles" were released in late December and revised versions were still being published.
Meanwhile, NEHTA's future funding and governance arrangements were not discussed at last week's Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra.
The Health spokeswoman said the matter was not on the agenda.
The Gillard government provided $67.4m in forward funding over two years to NEHTA in the recent budget, a sum expected to be matched by the state and territory governments.
COAG's Standing Council on Health last November agreed to continue their joint funding arrangements for the time being, but made no commitment to a long-term role for NEHTA.
The National Partnership Agreement on E-Health, governing the funding break-down, expired on June 30.
Health chief information officer Paul Madden told The Australian last month that NEHTA had "delivered" specifications for all foundation capabilities "on time and within budget".
Mr Madden said NEHTA would start a new work program, but the department had not provided any details.
Health is presently canvassing the market for a single provider to take over its operational and management responsibilities for the live PCEHR system.
It has released a tender calling for "provision of project support services" for its duties as systems operator, which include managing uptake, complaints, systemic issues, performance reporting, system integrity and strategic direction.
Health's spokeswoman said the successful bidder would replace a range of technical experts with expiring contracts hired since 2010 to work on the PCEHR project.
"As the department now has responsibility as the system operator, this expertise is still required," she said.
"As the contracts are to expire soon, it is standard practice to go back out to competitive tender to ensure we're getting the best people for the job and best value for taxpayer dollars."
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 07.08.2012
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
