New app links identities with Covid-19 tests via NHI

eHealthNews.nz: Covid-19

New app links identities with Covid-19 tests via NHI

Tuesday, 9 March 2021

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Staff in Managed Isolation and Quarantine Facilities (MIQF) are using a new app to electronically match a guest’s identity with their Covid-19 swab and test result.

Developed by Sysmex and the ESR data and informatics team for the Ministry of Health, the app uses barcode scanning to link a Covid test specimen to a guest’s unique National Health Index number. It is being used in MIQF in Auckland and Wellington, with Christchurch going live next.

The Eclair Touch Covid-19 app removes the need for paper orders to be sent to laboratories.

Lara Hopley, clinical lead for the project and clinical adviser digital innovations at Waitematā DHB, says the new system reduces the time taken to process tests in the lab by around three minutes per swab registration and greatly diminishes the possibility of labelling errors.

When a guest enters MIQF, an NHI-linked barcode is automatically generated and printed off for them to present whenever they get a test.

The nurse uses the app to scan the barcode and confirms the person’s identity by asking their date of birth. The barcode on a test vial is then scanned, linking it to the guest and the swab is then taken and placed in the vial.

Sysmex Eclair underpins the national Clinical Data Repository (CDR) at the government’s Environmental and Scientific Research Laboratory, which holds all Covid-19 test orders during the guest’s stay.

Data from the repository also feed into the daily Covid-19 report publishing by MoH.

All labs doing the MIQF Covid-19 testing are interfaced with the ESR repository using standards-based messaging. This means that when the swab arrives at the testing laboratory, the lab information system (LIS) confirms the patient details digitally, saving significant time and preventing labelling errors.

Sysmex sales and marketing director Colin McKenzie says Covid-19 swabs used to arrive with paper forms and a lab staff member had to manually transcribe details and confirm the NHI. This process resulted in transcribing errors up to 20 percent of the time.

“Now all the order information is confirmed by the LIS and they just have to validate it, eliminating the need for paper,” he says.

The next step is to modify the app for use in pop-up community testing centres. This would involve people having their NHI on their Covid Tracer app, which could be scanned at the centres to confirm their identity and link it to the swab taken.

Currently, people have to enter their own NHI into the app, however there are plans to build an API which will allow a one-way validation and verification of the NHI.

Watch a video of how the app is being used in MIQF.