Quality and Safety

Following the successful trialling of the co-designed standards to improve the secure exchange of healthcare information in 2018, the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has announced that it is partnering with 42 organisations to ensure they are able to easily share information when using different secure messaging platforms across 56 separate software products. WHY IT MATTERS Most clinicians can only correspond electronically with healthcare providers who use the same secure messaging software. These enhancements will allow clinicians to more easily address messages to healthcare providers who are on other secure messaging platforms and will ensure messages and acknowledgements are sent in standard formats. Breaking down these silos will allow clinicians to achieve the full potential of secure messaging and will support the move to axe both the fax and the scanner. General Manager of eHealth Solutions at Telstra Health, Tania Oldaker, said this is a great example of collaboration between software organisations and the Agency to support the work of general practitioners, specialists, allied health practitioners and other providers across Australia. “We’ve worked closely with the Agency and our colleagues in the software industry to develop these new secure messaging standards and test them in a proof-of-concept implementation,” Ms Oldaker said. “Now it’s time to scale this work nationally, and we’re excited to be implementing these changes across our product suite.” RECENT DEVELOPMENTS In July, ADHA partnered with nine specialist software vendors and provided them with A$40,000 each to complete designs that seamlessly and securely integrate the My Health Record (MHR) into their current systems. ADHA’s Chief Clinical Information Officer, Angela Ryan said that the Agency is leading a national consultation which will recommend the appropriate data and digital standards for connected healthcare by the end of 2019, according to a recent interview with Healthcare IT News.  ON THE RECORD “We have made significant progress on secure messaging by working with industry on a provider directory model that breaks down barriers between clinicians, while still leveraging the investment that the secure messaging industry has made to date,” said Bettina McMahon, Chief Operating Officer, ADHA in a statement.  “This is the next step that will ensure those new standards are adopted quickly so GPs, hospitals, specialists and other health practitioners can reap the full benefits of secure messaging, which include timelier receipt of clinical information and not having to chase or resend referrals.” “It also means we are one step closer to retiring fax machines, which is a priority of the National Digital Health Strategy agreed to by all Australian governments through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council,” Ms McMahon concluded. 

The mission of the project is to fill the knowledge gaps regarding effective interventions to reduce burnout and dissatisfaction.

Interfaith Medical Center deployed a variety of network security technologies to ward off ransomware and other attacks, virtualizing its servers in the process, which resulted in cost savings of more than $2 million over a seven-year period.

At Adventist Health White Memorial, reducing OR turnaround time by just three minutes may seem small – but at five turnarounds per day, multiplied by six operating rooms, it adds up to $974,160 per year.

Five experts in healthcare quality and safety technologies offer CIOs and other health IT workers in-depth tips and best practices for implementing these tools effectively.

The hospital can count itself among just four health systems in the world that have reached Stage 7 on the HIMSS Analytics Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity.

VHA medical facilities have a cumulative medical document backlog equivalent to more than five miles of stacked paper, with nearly 600,000 electronic files dating back to 2016.

The independent physician association in collaboration with community providers and EMS services has seen a 44% drop in 911 calls, 47% reduction in EMS transport, 36% reduction in ED visits, 42% reduction in hospital admissions and 31% decrease in observation stays.

Taipei Veterans General Hospital, a national first-class medical centre and a teaching hospital located in Beitou, Taipei, will utilise the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution to transform its pathology tissue examination to digital diagnostics, the Dutch health technology giant announced yesterday. The Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution allows tissue samples to be remotely viewed within a virtual pathology network across hospital locations, thereby helping TPVGH to establish Taiwan’s first fully digitalised pathology department. WHY IT MATTERS Using the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution with the Ultra-Fast Scanner, TPVGH will now be able to digitise tissue samples so that pathologists can review, interpret, analyse, and share digital images. The Image Management System that is part of the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution allows them to instantly consult colleagues or conveniently present images during multi-disciplinary team meetings, without the need to physically transport pathology slides or tissue samples. In addition to clinical use, the digital images will be stored in image repositories and used to teach pathology students, or used for medical research, including cancer research. THE LARGER TREND Last month, South Korea’s Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital introduced a digital pathology system that aids in the diagnosis of cancer, also utilising the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, Healthcare IT News reported.  ON THE RECORD “Philips Taiwan continues to help Taiwan in realising intelligent and advanced healthcare solutions,” said Richard Hu, General Manager of Philips Taiwan in a statement. “Digitalising pathology so that tissue samples can be viewed remotely, wherever they are needed, will not only enhance laboratory efficiency and quality but also improve patient safety.”