Isolation facilities using national clinical system

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A Border Clinical Management System has been rolled out to all Managed Isolation and Quarantine Facilities (MIQF) in Auckland and Wellington and is going live in Christchurch this month.

The national electronic system replaces a variety of local systems and paper processes, creating a more seamless journey for guests and reduces the time busy staff spend on administrative and clinical tasks by busy staff.

When guests arrive in New Zealand they encounter an integrated system: the National Border Solution pushes their information into the BCMS, using their National Health Index number as a unique identifier.

This arrival information drives the automatic creation of the guest’s testing schedule and a set of tasks, letting MIQF staff know when swabs need to be done, when that task has been completed and what the results are.

Clinical lead for the BCMS Lara Hopley says, “this means people don’t have to repeat themselves continually. As guests touch down in the country, the system knows who they are and can verify their identity via their NHI”.

“The digital system saves at least ten minutes of administrative time per swab taken in the facility and also saves about three minutes per swab registration in the lab. That time quickly adds up as there are from 400-1200 swabs taken in MIQF every day.”

The BCMS is built on the indici practice management system. Each facility has its own dashboard giving a quick overview of all the guests and their key information such as; their current Covid-19 status; whether they are confined to their room; and what tasks need to be completed that day.

The BCMS also records daily health checks and can send a referral to the team of GPs who are responsible for the guests’ clinical care. These GPs use the system for making notes, allocating tasks to nurses and electronic prescribing. 

When a guest is due for a test, staff who are collecting swabs use a new app to digitally link the test order, the guest, and the specimen through barcode scanning. 

The BCMS automatically orders the lab test and once the result is ready it is sent back to the system and into the national clinical data repository, which feeds the government’s daily data reports.

The BCMS holds every guest’s mobile phone number and texts them when there is a negative  result. If a result is positive, they get a phone call. 

The BCMS roll-out is being led by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with local DHBs and involves training hundreds of staff.

Michael Dreyer, GM national digital services at MoH, says the system ensures consistency across the country. Collaboration with clinicians like Hopley means it works well for end users.

Automating tasks helps the workforce deal with the more than 3000 guests moving through MIQF at any one time.

“We had a large manual overhead and we could see early on the strain on the workforce was a big challenge where things weren’t automated, but we are now seeing the benefits of throughput and removing lag and a better customer experience,” Dreyer says.

Hopley, who is an anaesthetist and clinical adviser digital innovations at Waitematā DHB, says the initial BCMS build was done in around six weeks and they have just completed another six weeks of refinements, based on user feedback.

A number of people have given their time and energy to making the project a success.

“The unique thing about this versus other clinical systems implementation projects is the amazing amount of cross team cooperation and development we have had,” she says.

“Starting at the top with MoH programme support, ESR data and digital expertise, regional and national laboratories, DHB and MoH employees on the ground and the support of the Valentia and Sysmex developers, who together with the Deloitte development team have put together a truly integrated, modern standards-based ecosystem.”

Read more about the app used in MIQF here.

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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