The Challenge
While clinicians could readily access patient information from the eMR system within their own local health district, they could not directly access this information from private hospitals or other local health districts. Lack of access to patient health information residing within different eMRs was preventing clinicians from providing continuity of care where patients had received care from multiple health settings or had transitioned between them.
The Plan
eHealth NSW developed a single clinical data repository to receive and store patient information from multiple different organisations regardless of their electronic medical system.
Known as the Clinical Health Information Exchange (CHIE), the repository allows clinicians to view eMR records for the same patient across different organisations. Only information from hospitals signed up to the CHIE is available to view via their local eMR.
Through CHIE, clinicians can view vital patient information including:
- Demographics
- Allergies and alerts
- Problems and diagnoses
- Past medical history
- Encounters
- Medications (on discharge)
- Vital signs and observations (top 20)
- Family history and social history and
- A range of clinical documents such as discharge summaries, progress notes, operation reports and management plans.
This ensures patients receive better continuity of care no matter where they are treated, improving a patients healthcare experience.
Northern Sydney Local Health District
The Outcome
The Clinical Health Information Exchange was the first implementation of its kind in Australia.
eHealth NSW piloted the repository in September 2019 by connecting Northern Sydney and Central Coast Local Health Districts and the public/private hybrid Northern Beaches Hospital.
Since then, it has been rolled out to a further six local health districts and one hospital network and continues to be implemented across the state.
The Benefits
For clinicians, CHIE:
- Supports patient clinical information visibility by providing access to data from other eMR domains
- Facilitates continuity of care
- Supports management of care for shared patients
- Increases workflow efficiency
- Helps inform clinical decision making and
- Improves patient safety and service quality.
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