Australia - Digital Economy - E-Health - Electronic Health Records

Synopsis

The previous Australian Government saw e-health as a natural extension of the Medicare service and the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) was seen as a key enabler in that policy. Accessing and sharing patient medical records is very inefficient in the Australian healthcare system. Pen and paper reporting, manual processing, digital scanning of paper reports and inaccessible electronic files lock patient information away and make it difficult to retrieve.

In 2016 the system was renamed into My Health Record.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are secure, electronic records of a person’s individual medical history, stored and shared in a network of connected systems. It will bring key health information from a number of different systems together and present it in a single view.

Information in an EHR will be able to be accessed by the owners of that information and their authorised healthcare providers. With this information available to them, healthcare providers will be able to make better decisions about health and treatment advice. Over time individual people will be able to contribute to their own information and add to the recorded information stored in their personal EHR.

The EHR will not hold all the information held in their doctor's records but will complement it by highlighting key information. In the future, as the EHR becomes more widely available, people will be able to access their own health information anytime they need it and from anywhere in Australia.

E-health, including EHR, will help prevent medication errors that cause an estimated 190,000 hospital admissions each year.

As part of the 2010/11 Federal Government budget over $466 million over two years had been made available to create a PCEHR for every Australian that wants one. A further $233.7 million was added to this in May 2012.

Pilot programs started to commence in 2011 some of it in conjunction with the rollout of the National Broadband Network. Nine further implementation sites were funded with over $55 million that would enable patients to sign up for a PCEHR.

Funding was intended to establish a secure system of personally controlled electronic health records that will provide patients will be able to allow individual health practitioners such as GPs, specialists and nurses to view their medical history. One of the aims is to provide faster diagnosis and reduce medication errors as the doctor will be able to see the patient’s medication history including any known allergies.

In 2012 the Senate passed legislation necessary for the PCEHR to be instituted as part of Australia’s health system.

By mid 2013, the system had surpassed its initial target with over 520,000 patients and over 5,000 GPs registered.

However, a review was launched by the new government in late 2013 and in May 2015 the government announced it will continue with the system under the new name My Heath Record.