By Kate McDonald, PULSE+IT
PricewaterhouseCoopers has won a $530,000 contract to develop a digital plan for rural and remote healthcare to guide the transformation of rural and remote health facilities to fully digital.
The plan is one of the elements of Queensland’s digital health strategic vision 2026, the state’s roadmap towards a digital health sector first released in March 2017.
It contains eight system-wide strategic goals for advancing healthcare through digital innovation as well as three “horizons” or timeframes. Funding for the plan was delivered in the $1.26 billion eHealth investment strategy along with local investment by the hospital and health services (HHSs).
The goals include building towards more systematic, high quality and safer care through the use of telehealth, the integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) and digital hospitals, the My Health Record, improved decision support and diagnostics, a state-wide patient master index, and 3D printing.
Another goal is improved resource management through mobility, wireless networks, BYOD, single sign-on, its The Viewer clinical portal, Queensland’s new pathology laboratory information system and the replacement of the HBCIS patient administration system.
Links to primary and community care will be improved though electronic referrals and scheduling, patient portals, and electronic clinical handover.
Queensland Health is in the development phase of a statewide eReferral service that promises to improve referrals between primary and acute care.
A spokesperson for eHealth Queensland said the rural and remote strategy is expected to be finalised in June or July this year.
