PHO goes digital ‘on steroids’

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eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Tū Ora Compass Health has been working on digital transformation for the past year. The arrival of Covid-19 has accelerated the PHO’s plans by making virtual working a necessity and staff have risen to the challenge, moving entire services online in the space of a week.

Tū Ora Compass Health has implemented its digital transformation plans “on steroids” as the PHO and general practices rapidly move to virtual ways of working.

GPs have switched from doing 95 per cent of appointments face-to-face to 70-80 per cent telephone or video consultations over the space of a week.

The primary health organisation’s mental and sexual health services have also gone almost entirely virtual.

A very busy month

Chief information officer Alistair Vickers says the PHO has been working with  technology partner Aceso on its digital transformation for the past year and the Covid-9 crisis accelerated their plans.

The PHO has implemented the full Microsoft 365 technology stack including collaboration tool SharePoint, Power BI tools and enhanced security.

It is also moving to the cloud with Microsoft Azure and working towards its staff being fully functioning remotely.

Chief executive Martin Hefford tells eHealthNews.nz, “March was always going to be a very very busy month: turning on Microsoft sharepoint, a provider portal, Power BI, a new claims and payments system, the data warehouse, and moving to Microsoft Azure.

“We’ve had to put it on steroids and do it with one hand behind our back as many staff have gone to work in the five Covid-19 swabbing centres so the team has been quite stretched, but nothing beats necessity and we have to be virtual and people have to make those changes.”

Virtual services

The PHO’s 30 mental health therapists have gone entirely virtual, using both video and telephone counselling with clients.

Hefford says the mental health team is using Melon technology as a secure online messaging service which allows them to track a client’s progress remotely. Clients are also using the Melon online community for support, which is moderated.

Sexual health services are doing consultations via phone and referring people for lab tests, while still seeing a small number of clients face-to-face. The service is also going live with the Indici patient management system, which will allow video consultations.

Most of the PHOs general practices rapidly stood up a virtual service using three main platforms; Medtech’s Manage My Health; Indici; and Doxy.me.

“We have been working towards this shift for a number of years,” Hefford says.

“Health Care Home is about encouraging patient portals and virtual consults so a lot of practices had the capacity but hadn’t made the switch and this has given them the necessity to make that switch.

“Although the reason why is awful, it’s quite exciting, the changes people are making very quickly. I personally don’t think we will ever go back so a lot of things that can be done online in health will be done online.”

Digital divide

Vickers says that this switch to virtual consultations is happening rapidly and the PHO is aware of issues around the digital divide and ensuring low income populations can continue to access health services.

He says that while a large number of New Zealanders have access to a smartphone, some do not have the data or Wi-Fi needed to make video calls or access their patient portals online.

“That’s where we need to get solutions, for those who don’t have data,” he says.

Team work

Hefford says both clinical and non-clinical staff have embraced the new way of working. The PHO recently held an all-of-staff meeting involving more than 100 people on Microsoft Teams and it went “amazingly well”.

Staff have been trained on Microsoft Teams and SharePoint since December, meaning they are well prepared for the switch to remote working.

Teams are holding daily stand-ups using the technology as well as keeping in touch with colleagues.

The PHO is also running a twice weekly video briefing with the medical director through Microsoft Teams, which is attracting around 100 GPs and nurses to log in for an update and to ask questions via the chat function.

If you would like to provide feedback on the above feature article, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

Read more features:

COVID-19 an opportunity for collaborative approaches to digital technology

CiLN: A passion for using technology to transform healthcare

For more information and resources about COVID-19 go to https://www.hinz.org.nz/page/covid19

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