Integrated care digital program
The Integrated Care Digital Program (ICDP) is one of four programs within Children’s Health Queensland’s (CHQ) Digital Future portfolio. It focuses on delivering health information sharing solutions that enable seamless healthcare across the entire continuum of care and across organisational boundaries.
The program supports CHQ’s overall Integrated Care Strategy and its digital vision for delivering child and family-focused care that is safer, more reliable and of a higher quality.
ICDP’s priority actions are:
- Delivering the digital enablers to support collaborative shared care
- Connecting the silos of health information
- Providing clinicians access to the right information at point of care
- Improving patient outcomes and overall experience
- Contributing to the ultimate goal of a shared longitudinal patient record for children and young people from pre-birth to adulthood
- Providing the ability for organisations to perform data analytics and health intelligence reporting to improve health planning and research
As with all Digital Future programs, only authorised healthcare staff can access online patient information. Each patient record is protected by privacy legislation. Built-in security measures protect against unauthorised access.
Key outcomes and benefits
The ICDP’s projects will enable the following key outcomes and benefits:
- Patient experience: sharing clinical information between health service providers reduces the need for patients to recall or reiterate information and/or repeat diagnostic tests unnecessarily. This improves the convenience of moving between health care organisations and enhances patient experience and overall satisfaction.
- Safety and quality: enhanced integration of patient records between health service providers helps clinicians have access to the most current and relevant information at the point of care. Integration supports collaborative decision making and care planning which enhances the overall safety and quality of care provided to patients.
- Staff effectiveness: faster access to information, less reliance on paper request forms and patient files and a reduced risk of lost or missing information can enhance staff effectiveness in delivering care. It can also improve overall staff productivity in terms of freeing up time to focus on value added activities, such as performing research and engaging with patients and their families.
- Efficiency: streamlining and automating manual processes, removing duplication of effort and reducing reliance on paper can deliver direct financial savings. Furthermore it will enable clinicians, nursing and administrative staff to work more efficiently, thereby helping to reduce unnecessary overtime costs. Efficiency gains can then be reallocated to provide additional capacity to deliver more episodes of care, which in turn contributes to improved patient experience.
- Population health: integrating and sharing de-identified clinical information enables researchers to efficiently perform longitudinal research. This enhances evidence about the current state of health in the population and supports future research into interventions to improve health.
Current projects
Phase 1 enabled auto patient matching and electronic sharing of patient records between Mater and Queensland Health by connecting their respective clinical portals.
Phase 2 delivers tactical improvements that further develop electronic two-way information sharing between QH and Mater for shared care patients, including neonates, children and young adults.
Children’s Health Queensland’s new integrated patient portal will allow patients and their families to better navigate their healthcare by managing their specialist appointments and accessing health-related information from one place.
One of six state-wide Smart Referrals projects, the Workflow Solution automatically reads and converts faxed referrals into electronic referral files which are then electronically categorised. The capability has also been rolled out to Child and Community Health Centres.
The Reporting and Analytics Capability project (SRRAC) will enable the capability to integrate, analyse and report on referral data from a variety of existing sources. It will allow iRMS-adopting hospital and health services and Department of Health divisions to track how effectively relevant Specialist Outpatient Strategy improvement measures are enhancing state-wide referrals.
This initiative will deliver a national digital version of the state hard copy pregnancy records or folders. It will be a digital record of a woman’s pregnancy and her unborn child’s health. The project is facilitated by Children’s Health Queensland and is one of five projects from the National Children’s Digital Health Collaborative.
Completed projects
This replaces the current system that allocates patients from waiting lists to private surgery providers. It enables hospital and health services to electronically manage elective surgery waitlist patient referrals to private sector providers for treatment within clinically recommended timeframes. Download factsheet.
From mid-2017, Queensland GPs can bridge the information gap between themselves and hospitals via The Viewer. It is an online read-only system that gives GPs access to healthcare information of patients who receive care from Queensland Health facilities, including recent pathology, radiology and discharge summary information.
Resources
Contact us
For more information, please contact us at CHQ-ICP@health.qld.gov.au.
