WellSouth primary health network develops consumer portal

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eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

WellSouth Primary Health Network is developing a consumer portal so that 277,000 patients will be able to access GP and hospital information online.

WellSouth’s chief information officer, Kyle Forde, says the PHN went live with a ConnectMed patient portal in mid-2016. Development over the next two years, including integration with systems outside of health, will see it become a consumer portal. The patient portal currently offers appointment bookings, repeat prescriptions, recalls, lab results, allergies and conditions, and medications.

Phase two of the project involves adding telehealth virtual consults and after-hours access from April this year, in line with the region’s Primary and Community Strategy. The PHN has already trialled a virtual medical practice service that will be integrated with the portal.

“Because I work predominantly in telehealth and innovating around telehealth, it was important that we linked the two together,” says Forde.

The PHN covers 83 practices using five different patient management systems, of which 27 are currently live with a portal.

Forde says that getting funding for the project has not been easy, but now that it is included in the Primary and Community Strategy, it will get funding for a wider roll-out and development.

“The biggest barrier is the cost to practices, so, as the PHO, we want to be able to support them through that process,” Forde says.

“I want all practices to be offering this by the end of the year. There’s people who need convincing, but it’s about what value it adds to the patient, and when you introduce patient consults and add DHB information, that’s really important and gives better value to patients.”

Further phase two developments include integration with the District Health Board’s appointment systems, electronic voucher issuing, electronic prescribing and provider portal access.

Forde says that integrating with the DHB is important because appointments are currently sent via the post and sometimes arrive the day after the appointment was scheduled.

By the end of 2019, the consumer portal will have full integration completed across patient management systems in the primary sector, as well as care plan integration with Health Connect South and care plan systems in the North Island.

Forde says a critical part of the development of the portal is ensuring equal access to the digital service.

“We want to ensure that the lower socio-economic demographic has access to it as well because not everyone has mobile data and the internet,” he says.

“We want to get the [telecommunication companies] on board to allow free access to a patient portal in New Zealand.”

PROJECT CONTACT: To find out more about this project please contact Kyle Forde

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