Healthcare provider organisations all over the country can now update their information in one place with Provider Connect Australia, eliminating the need to update multiple directories manually.
Provider Connect Australia is a new technology service that will maintain the accuracy of healthcare service and practitioner contact details.
When healthcare provider organisations update their contact details in the service, their details will be automatically sent to nominated hospitals, pathology and radiology services, public service directories, secure messaging providers and more.
The tech is expected to be rolled out nationally, driving greater interoperability and adoption of secure messaging across the healthcare system. It will also provide benefits to both patients and health professionals.
Provider Connect Australia is predicted to achieve economic benefits of more than $30 million per year by 2025.
“By providing this national service, the Agency can improve the quality and reliability of healthcare service details in directories and other services, including Medicare, and significantly reduce the administrative burden on healthcare organisations,” Australian Digital Health Agency CEO Amanda Cattermole said.
“Secure messaging is a key strategic priority under the National Digital Health Strategy and the Agency is delivering this new feature of the national digital health infrastructure to enable healthcare providers to easily find each other to securely share patient information.”
Prior to the new technology service, healthcare provider organisations were required to complete between 10 and 20 different paper or online forms just to notify different parts of the healthcare system on service or practitioner information changes. This leads to inaccurate and out-of-date information across the sector, impacting efficiency and quality of care.
Launching the Provider Connect Australia service will mean that healthcare organisations can update their information quickly and seamlessly, leaving them more time with their patients.
“The objective is to improve the efficiency of administrative processes for publishers and subscribers managing their data and help provide prompt, safe and seamless patient care across settings and providers,” CEO Cattermole said.
The benefits to patient care will also be significant since having the most up-to-date details can ensure better hospital discharge summaries, treatment plans and progress notes and quick check-ups. The service will also help the patient’s GP to provide the best possible post-hospital care.
“Provider Connect Australia will deliver efficiencies for practice support staff who will only have to update any changes in practice information once and will increase confidence at the point of care that all of the incoming information about patients will be there, and that outgoing address books are complete and up-to-date,” Dr Steve Hambleton, a General Practitioner and the Agency’s Chief Clinical Adviser said.
“I look forward to using it in my practice.”