Shared care record access a ‘game changer’ for physios

eHealthNews.nz: Interoperability

Shared care record access a ‘game changer’ for physios

Monday, 1 May 2023

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Physios are amongst a range of community providers who now have access to the South Island’s shared care record system, as HealthOne expands its community of clinical users.

Christchurch physiotherapist Ethan Horne says HealthOne “allows us to work more effectively as a multi-disciplinary team: everyone is on the same page and has the same access to the patient’s information.”

HealthOne brings together and electronically stores health information about a person -including GP records, prescribed and dispensed medications and test results - and covers everybody living in the South Island.

Physios and sports physicians are now accessing the shared care record as part of the ACC Innovation Fund grant.

Horne, who works at Sports Clinic, says getting HealthOne access has been a game-changer when treating patients who have been through the public hospital system.

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When a patient first attends a physio, they have often had prior contact with the hospital, but physios did not have access to hospital imaging or notes related to the injury or treatment.

Horne said he would previously have to email the hospital records department to request relevant information and that could take up to a week. In the meantime, patients could be asked to come back once this had arrived.

“We need to know things like ‘what kind of fracture a patient may have had?’ and any restrictions put on them by the orthopaedic doctors. If we don’t have that information at the time of the appointment, we can’t give accurate physio information,” he explains.

“HealthOne means we can give people accurate advice in a timely manner without wasting their time or our time.”

Horne says he logs in via a web browser and can check a patient’s history to allow him to prepare for their first appointment.

“I use it quite a bit and people are really happy we can see the right information. We also have more time with patients than a hospital doctor might have to explain things, show them images and talk through what they can see and the impact of that,” he says.

Mercy Hospital in Dunedin, Healthline and Practice Plus national telehealth services have also been recently onboarded onto HealthOne.

HealthOne general manager Rachael Page says having more health care providers using the same shared clinical data creates greater continuity for patients.

She says community pharmacies have been using HealthOne for almost ten years and recently received an upgrade, streamlining their experience. As a result, pharmacy use of the system has grown over the last year.

Ninety percent of Aged Residential Care (ARC) facilities across the South Island are also now connected to HealthOne, equating to 715 key staff having access to their residents’ community and hospital records.

“HealthOne is committed to enabling access to important clinical information whenever and wherever a patient is being seen. This is particularly important when its outside their regular healthcare setting,” says Page.

The second round of the ACC Innovation Fund is opening soon and more details will be released shortly.