Information Management
The Division
provides a wide range of support and
resources to General Practices to increase
and ehance the effective utilisation of information management
systems.
Activities Include:
-
On site
tailored Medical Director Training
for GPs, Practice Nurses and
Staff.
-
Development
of electronic clinical templates
-
Advice
and support regarding General
Practice information management and
system usage.
PEN Clinical Audit Tool
The PEN Clinical Audit tool is a program
that can analyse your Medical Director or
Best Practice databases and present the
information to you in an easy to view and
manipulate graphical interface. It allows
you to analyse both patient care and
accuracy of data recorded. General Practice
South has bought a division-wide licence for
the product, so it is completely free to any
practice that wants it. This replicates an
initiative that is underway with several
Divisions and practices in Victoria.
If you are running Medical Director or
Best Practice and would like to have PEN
installed or see a demonstration, please
contact the program officer. Here are a few
resources that contain further information
about Pen and the company's ongoing
relationship with Divisions of General
Practice.
Version 2.2 Just Released
!!!
The latest
version of the PEN tool became available on
the 8th of September. It now has modules
that show the last recorded date for some
major immunisations (MDW only), namely:
Influenza, Pneumococcal and Pertussis.
Additionally there is information on what
stage female patients are at with the
Gardasil vaccination. There is also a summary
report that shows data recording
percentages across the practice for common
things like: gender, age, allergy, smoking,
BP, HBA1c and others. Lastly, there is a cross
tabulation report, which lets you select
patients that appear on multiple graphs. For
instance, you can generate a report of
people who smoke, and have high blood
pressure and have high cholesterol, and have
diabetes.
This tool
continues to become more and more useful. To
download the latest version, simply go into
the program and answer yes to the
prompt.
If you would
like more information on Version 2.1, you can
download the new manual
or the release
notes.
North East
Valley division have an excellent collection
of Pen resources, including work books and
"How To" guides. Click here
to check them out.
Broadband
The Broadband for Health subsidy scheme
finished on 31/12/2007. With the expiry of
this subsidy, practices may
re-evaluate their internet connectivity
options. Ideally Internet Service Providers
will continue to make the same product
available at a reasonable price, thus
eliminating the need to change plans and
avoiding the inconveniences that can come
with such a change. If you are thinking
about changing your internet plan, the
Australian General Practice network (AGPN)
has produced a connectivity
guide for General Practice.
Practice Incentive Payment (PIP) IM/IT
In November 2006 the Government made
changes to the IM/IT component of the PIP.
These changes continued the emphasis on
management of clinical information and
General Practice data security and
integrity. You can read about the November
changes here.
This continued emphasis on on security and
record management matters is also reflected
in the RACGP
3rd Edition Standards.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
PKI is the encryption and security
standard for sending medical information
over the internet. The Royal Hobart Hospital
utilises PKI for sending out Discharge
notifications, and many other organisations
in the health sector are also utilising PKI
certificates to email clinical
information. You can read about PKI
and apply for Certificates at the Medicare
web site.
There are an increasing number of
systems that automate the process of
sending and receiving secure email, as well
as dealing with the message attachments that
the email may contain. Conventional email
programs can also be used for Secure email.
Here are some resources that explain some of
the common operations:
These
resources help deal with some of the
issues regarding receiving secure
email using a conventional email
client like Outlook Express and then
importing these advices/reports into
your clinical software. There is a
project being run by General
Practice Tasmania that automates
these processes and aims to simplify
the links between general practice
and other healthcare providers,
principally private specialists. You
can read all about the Secci project
here.
Privacy Legislation
Commencing on 21 December 2001, the
Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000
(Cth), extends the operation of the Privacy
Act 1988 (Cth) to large private sector
organisations and all health services
providers. Schedule 3 of the amending Act
sets out 10 National Privacy Principles (NPPs),
which are the minimum privacy standards and
legal requirements relating to the handling
of personal information by private sector
organisations.
Other Resources
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