As federal Health Minister Peter Dutton yesterday described the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record as "meaningless", documents obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws give new insight into the failure of this technological revolution.
In June - a month before the PCEHR was expected to reach Labor's target of 500,000 registrations in its first 12 months - the board of the National E-Health Transition Authority was warned the PCEHR could not be used properly in a clinical setting. The admission laid bare the lack of acceptance by GPs and clinics who were expected to input patient information and data.
"NEHTA . . . gave a demonstration of provider PCEHR clinical software to members of the independent advisory committee at their meeting on 31 May," the briefing paper states.
"The strong view of members was that significant improvement was needed in the way PCEHR information is presented in healthcare provider software."
The board was warned that "given usability is critical to the participation of healthcare providers", officials needed to "urgently", if belatedly, engage with stakeholders to fix the problems.
Around the same time, as more taxpayer funds were being pumped into the struggling project, the then Department of Health and Ageing was forced to take over NEHTA's key responsibility of stakeholder engagement.
"There is a risk that stakeholder engagement activities undertaken by the department and NEHTA have inconsistent messaging that could lead to confusion," a separate NEHTA board briefing paper states. "The mitigation strategy will see the department take a lead in stakeholder engagement activities."
The PCEHR fell about 100,000 registrations short of its July target, despite a last-minute flurry of activity that included shopping centre displays.
At October 31, there were 1,053,633 registrations but only a few hundred doctors uploading shared health summaries, meaning the theoretically sound concept has practically failed.
Mr Dutton yesterday announced a review of the PCEHR project, to be headed by UnitingCare Health Queensland chief Richard Royle, supported by Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton and Australia Post chief information officer Andrew Walduck.
The panel, expected to report back by Christmas, will examine the level of consultation with end users and stakeholders during development, the gaps between expectations and what has been delivered, and what needs to be done to fix the PCEHR.
Somewhat pointedly, the review's terms of reference include how the private sector can become more involved in such projects.
On the Australian Agenda program on Sky News yesterday, Mr Dutton could not hide his disappointment at how the former Labor government had mismanaged the PCEHR. "At the moment, it's a meaningless record - the doctors won't embrace it, they're not populating the information, patients are missing out, the taxpayers are copping the cost," Mr Dutton said.
The review has been welcomed by key stakeholders.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sean Parnell
Quelle/Source: The Australian, 04.11.2013
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