According to a Health Department spokeswoman, the total number of PCEHR users was 397,745 as at June 30. She could not reveal the average number of logins for last month.
That represents a whopping increase of 313,196 registrations last month alone, compared with 84,549 at the end of May.
The government set a goal of half a million registrations by June 30 this year before the PCEHR went live 12 months ago.
At a budget estimates hearing last month, Health Deputy Secretary Rosemary Huxtable said the target was "still in sight" after getting 10,000 registrations - the highest number in a single day - on June 4. She later said 500,000 "may be a stretch".
The spokeswoman declined to reveal the number of logins last month. In May there were 38,610 logins.
The spokeswoman said there were 4324 healthcare organisations (HPI-Os) registered in the PCEHR system covering all health professionals and authorised employees within those organisations to access the PCEHR using the organisation's systems.
There are 4805 individual providers (HPI-Is) whose registered organisations had linked them in the system to allow them to use the PCEHR provider portal, she said.
According to the spokeswoman, 26 software vendors have completed the notice of connection and conformance compliance and accreditation processes and have been authorised to access the PCEHR system.
There are 15,000 hospitals and 200 software vendors that can participate in the PCEHR.
According to the ABS, there were 70,200 medical practitioners in 2011, including 43,400 general practitioners and 25,400 specialists. Despite the push to educate people on the PCEHR, many doctors, like West Australian GP Edwin Kruys, still refuse to use the system.
Dr Kruys, who is part of a 20-person medical practice in Geraldton, has grave fears over the contract GPs have to sign with the government before they can access PCEHR incentive payments. "If they can make it less frightening and less risky for doctors to participate they would have more clinicians on board," Dr Kruys said.
He singled out two clauses in the contract that say all confidential patient information uploaded to the PCEHR can be used in any way by the government and "other organisations forever". The contract also states that all PCEHR information will belong to the government.
The Health spokeswoman said the healthcare provider participation agreement was developed in close consultation with healthcare provider stakeholders, such as the AMA and RACGP and indemnity insurers.
She said clause 7 of the Healthcare Provider Participation Agreement dealt with intellectual property rights while clause 7.3 provided an IP licence to the System Operator so that they could share information online.
Clause 7.4 provides a similar IP licence back to the healthcare provider so that they can access and download info from other healthcare providers.
"Under the PCEHR Act all participants can only access information in the system for the reasons that are set out in the act, such as for healthcare, for managing the system and where required by law," the spokeswoman said. "Clause 7.3 in the participation agreement does not allow any extra access to the information by anybody."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Fran Foo
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 02.07.2013
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