What is the eHealth Program?
eHealth is the electronic management of health information to deliver safer, more efficient, better quality healthcare. The Australian Government is committed to eHealth and is facilitating the transition of paper-based clinical record keeping to electronic means for better information exchange.
What does the eHealth Program do?
- Improve capacity in the primary care sector to use and adopt available eHealth systems and services in accordance with the National eHealth Strategy
- Improve communication between healthcare providers and service delivery facilities by promoting eHealth eCommunications in Practice via:
- ePathology - seamless pathology results
- eDischarge Summaries - immediate, accurate patient records
- eReferrals - streamlining the handover of care
- eMedication Management - reducing the risks involved
- Increase eHealth literacy and information management capacity across the Network through the provision of education to general practice network staff
- Increase the integration of information management, eHealth and data governance principles into the delivery of core general practice network services and programs
- Promote the benefits of eHealth through the continual identification and dissemination of information, resources, and lessons learned
How can the eHealth Program help you?
- Improved access to reliable health information
- Improved healthcare planning by directing resources to where they are needed most
- Enhanced shared care for complex medical problems and chronic disease
- Encourage innovation to deliver improvements in health sector productivity
- Reduced burden on Australia's health sector through better health management (e.g. reduced duplication of tests, visits and procedures)
What has the eHealth Program achieved?
- Medicare Local is part of a consortium which has been selected for the second wave of eHealth records, and is working on furthering other eHealth projects.
- Has identified communication deficiencies between GPs and hospitals, and developed eHealth strategies to address them.
- Good News stories about the eHealth Program in the ACT can be found in the related documents section of this page.
Who can help you?
Eleonor Geoghegan
eHealth Team Leader
(02) 6287 8099
Visit the eHealth Essentials Blog - www.ehealth-act.com.au