This cloud-based portal has the potential to significantly reduce the administrative workload for GPs, practices and other healthcare providers when they need to update or change provider details.
The Australian Digital Health Agency (Agency) is best known for some of its bolder big order interoperability initiatives, among them, the re-engineering of My Health Record to accept, process and distribute patient data in real time via the cloud, and the Health Information Exchange, now known as Health Connect Australia.
But sometimes it’s the smaller, more practical ideas that create the most impact in the complex journey of better communications between providers, their technical interfaces with other providers, their business partners and, ultimately, their patients.
One example of this is the progress being made by HealthDirect on the concept of a national 222 number for triaging patients for all things other than a 000 emergency. The idea and technology behind this push is nowhere near as complex or expensive as what is going to be needed for a My Health Record transformation, or a national Health Connect Australia, but if HealthDirect can get this concept up nationally it’s going to have a significant impact on patient-provider connectivity and in building out national data which will help many other aspects of provider and patient interoperability.
A not dissimilar project in terms of practicality for short term impact on provider efficiency, patient services and connectivity in the system is the Provider Connect Australia (PCA) project being run by the Agency.
Like the 222 concept, the idea behind PCA is simple and practical, albeit the application build won’t be cheap (it’s being underwritten by the Agency).
PCA is a one stop cloud-based portal where GPs (and other healthcare providers) and their practices can enter information on important business changes – like opening hours, contact information and healthcare services – once, and have that information automatically updated to key business partners and service providers.
Instead of an individual GP having to sit down and change their details in up to 10 separate applications, each with their own protocols, logins and checking processes, PCA will enable either an individual GP running as a sole trader or business, or a practice manager, to enter the details just once in the PCA portal, and have those details automatically uploaded in the correct format to each of the 10 separate business and provider applications.
The sort of applications we are talking about include some key basics like booking engines, secure messaging services and a range of important service applications a GP would typically be using within their patient management system such as the business data analysis application Cubiko. Even the National Health Services Directory (run by Healthdirect) is linked in, meaning not only other providers but also the public can access provider and service information.
By far the boldest part of the initiative which could have a major system impact is to subscribe hospitals and hospital networks to the service. Perhaps the most important point of communication in the healthcare system moving forward will be that between a hospital and its local GP community.
If you had to map the ways and means that discharge summaries and e-referrals currently run between the GP community and hospitals by region across Australia, you’d have something akin to a giant poster of spaghetti splashed across a map of the country.
A PCA subscribed hospital would have near real time access to the most accurate means of securely communicating with most of the GPs in their area, which would be of enormous benefit to the GPs, the hospital and ultimately their patients.
Having an accurate and constantly updated record of how a local GP wants to connect to their hospital will be vital to transitioning connectivity between a hospital and GP from older more rigid technology such as secure messaging to more flexible web-based technologies such as e-referral.
Each secure messaging provider has their own directory they keep to themselves as much as possible, as its important IP for them against potential competitors. PCA ensures secure messaging vendors have the most up to date information about their customers.
Importantly, within this now fast evolving ecosystem there is now a new generation of cloud-based e-referral providers who are starting to override the need for secure messaging (which talks largely via old technology to server bound patient management systems) in some data transfer from GPs to other providers such as hospitals.
For this system to evolve, GPs or their practices first need to know about and know how to connect to such cloud-based providers. Regionally, individual hospitals and networks are starting to set up localised means of communicating directly with their GP community using such services outside of the traditional secure messaging vendor framework. One such new provider is ConsultMed.
If PCA could go halfway to making this complex mess a little more connected and efficient, it would be very worthwhile and of high value to the GP community, solving a lot of day-to-day admin for GPs and their practices in updating details to their key business partners.
Imagine the situation of your practice gaining a new GP and you only have to enter the details of this GP once for the information to be registered by the major doctor appointment engines and doctor directories, by the National Health Services Directory, by Cubiko if you’re using it, and by the major secure messaging vendors and other key business partner integrations. PCA can do this.
The advantage that PCA starts with in undertaking the project is that it is already supported by key government infrastructure within Services Australia, so they have base data already such as a GP’s Individual Health Identifier. Access to the portal is through PRODA which nearly all GPs are now registered with and using.
Even with the potential of huge admin efficiency and subsequent patient benefits that are on offer with PCA, providers and their practices are a very distracted and busy bunch – so it will be a challenge on many fronts, but worth the initial investment.
As a fairly new initiative, PCA also has a certain element of chicken and egg to it to overcome and relies on both provider and business partner registrations.
The more providers that sign up, the more there will be a network effect and value to service providers and business partners who are thinking of working with the Agency to plug the PCA portal into their end.
There is only upside for providers like hospitals, and business partners like major appointment engines, doctor directories and secure messaging vendors to join the system as the Agency is going to do a lot of the work.
If you are an appointment engine or a doctor directory, one of your biggest headaches is keeping up to date with changes in provider details. PCA offers free updating for all these business applications, which would streamline the updating process significantly.
The Agency is on a push to get provider sign ups first, in particular, registrations from GPs and GP practices. Currently they have almost 3200 clinics signed up to the system, which means they’ve made a good start but have a long way to go – there are about 32,000 practising GPs and more specialists, before you get to the 100s of thousands of allied health providers.
A practice or GP signing up will already see some real time saving as the Agency has some important starting service providers on board with working APIs, including the National Health Services Provider Directory, eHealth NSW, every PHN in the country and a selection of secure messaging providers.
Interested GPs and other healthcare providers can register for PCA here.
Business partners who are interested in being on the PCA portal can register here.
For any questions you have and more information you can email pca@digitalhealth.gov.au
This article was written by Health Services Daily on behalf of the Australian Digital Health Agency as a promotion of Provider Connect Australia.
