Northern region to adopt Medtasker

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand Northern region districts will replace their emergency paging systems with Medtasker after the region’s secure communications service contract was awarded to Telstra Health.

The RFP was for a paging replacement solution to establish a modern two-way secure critical communications to the emergency services for Te Toka Tumai Auckland, Te Tai Tokerau , Waitematā and Counties Manukau Districts.

The regional system will rationalise a number of paging systems currently in use across the districts.

Te Tai Tokerau (Northland) District will be the first to go-live around March 2023.

Acting chief digital officer at Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau, Megan Milmine, says the new service will replace the region’s emergency paging system. The legacy Spark paging system has been in operation for a number of years and is now owned by Fire and Emergency New Zealand, but is due to be replaced over the next few years.

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“Medtasker is a fantastic system that was designed by a doctor, who is still the lead developer, so it’s very intuitive and follows clinical processes really nicely,” she says.

When rolled out, it will be used by all clinical staff, as well as a number of support staff. Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau has almost completed a significant project to ensure the workforce is enabled with smart phones, so staff are ready for implementation.

The Northern Region is mostly using the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 5 mobile phone as it has a built-in cover making it more rugged and waterproof.

“We have just about finished ensuring that every role that requires a smartphone has been upgraded accordingly,” Milmine explains.

“As more and more systems become available electronically, we will explore options for phones with slightly larger screens so staff can do more things on their device, like write notes and prescribe medication.”



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