Electronic health records for all Australians
Posted
by DPS
The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) has released a supplementary paper to its Interim Report, outlining the Commission’s support for person-controlled electronic health records for every Australian.
The Commission has made seven recommendations to make person-controlled electronic health records a reality. These include:
- By 2012, every Australian should be able to have a personal electronic health record that will at all times be owned and controlled by that person;
- The Commonwealth Government must legislate to ensure the privacy of a person’s electronic health data, while enabling secure access to the data by the person’s authorised health providers;
- The Commonwealth Government must introduce unique personal identifiers for health care by 1 July 2010;
- The Commonwealth Government must develop and implement an appropriate national social marketing strategy to inform consumers and health professionals about the significant benefits and safeguards of the proposed e-health approach; and
- The Commonwealth Government must mandate that the payment of public and private benefits for all health and aged care services be dependent upon the provision of data to patients, their authorised carers, and their authorised health providers, in a format that can be integrated into a personal electronic health record.
