System identifies children missing health checks in Northern region

eHealthNews.nz: National Systems & Strategy

System identifies children missing health checks in Northern region

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

NCHIP The National Child Health Information Platform (NCHIP) is live in the Northern region and being used to ensure all children are connected with health providers and getting the health checks they need.

In New Zealand, children are eligible for 30 child health milestone checks between birth and six years such as; metabolic screening, immunisation, oral health, before school checks, and vision and hearing.

Orion Health clinical consultant Angela de Zwart says these health checks are done by many providers and information is held in data silos, making it difficult to recognise patterns and identify those children who are missing out on services.

NCHIP is a cloud-based platform that collates non-clinical information - including ethnicity, deprivation level and milestone updates - into a unified view of milestones and care provider relationships.

The platform went live in the Northern region in February 2020 and supports child health connection services in Northland (Te Māhuri) and Auckland and Waitematā DHB’s Uri Ririki.

“NCHIP automates data capture wherever possible and provides a standardised view of child health information,” de Zwart says.

Child Lists are generated overnight from large volumes of data, which are then accessible to NCHIP coordinators who use it to connect children with providers and ensure they receive all of their health checks and immunisations on time.

Uri Ririki coordination hub improved the rate of timely completion of an initial Well Child Tamariki Ora check (for Māori, Pacific or higher need tamariki group) from less than 60% in Sept 2020 to more than 90% rate in April 2021.

Also during the period from April 2020 to May 2021, working by formal agreement with the Ministry of Social Development, the hub reconnected 179 babies and children who had missed multiple health visits.

As of July 2021, more than 161,000 children have been enrolled in the system, which is opt-off.

Paediatrician and clinical sponsor for NCHIP, Timothy Jelleyman, says the platform works both at the population health level and to provide child specific information at the point of care.

In clinics, Jelleyman will check a child’s NCHIP record and talk to the family about what checks or services their child has or has not had. He does this via a simple click in the DHB’s Regional Clinical Portal.

Plunket can also access the NCHIP and eventually this will be extended to other child health providers.

“At the point of care you can have an informed conversation with whānau, and at the population view we can have a more directed service response,” he explains.

Recently, Jelleyman used the platform to locate a child who had not turned up to clinic, by looking at the child’s ‘circle of care’, finding the last provider to have seen the family and contacting them to get a current phone number for the child’s mother and rearrange the appointment.

“We understand families have many other things to think about but we do have a role to advocate for these children,” he says.

“Health system information has been quite segmented, so in most of these cases it is not that people don't want service: it’s either that they are lost in the system or things don’t come up as a reminder.

“This is improving things, child by child.”