Digital Health News – February 2024

The Digital Health team continues to collaborate with staff and external stakeholders to implement changes that enhance the usability of the EMR and associated systems.  

Based on feedback from staff who expressed a desire to stay informed about EMR changes, we have created a new EMR updates page.  We encourage all staff to bookmark this page in your browser to stay current with the EMR changes we are implementing, to assist you in focusing on Best Care at Western Health!   

In addition to the EMR, we collaborate with various teams across Western Health to support numerous applications and systems.  You can learn more about how we can support you, including the process for EMR change requests on the Digital Health Support page. 

As reported in the January 2024 edition of this newsletter, an important initiative is underway, focusing on the optimisation of the EMR functionality related to Specialist Clinics.

Working closely with clinical staff, we’ve made several EMR updates to improve the functionality and workflows linked to referral and waitlist management, face up display of information and to ensure key referral and clinical information is easily accessible. The quality of patient and general practitioner communications, performance reporting and billing also remains a priority.

Recent EMR updates include:

1. Creating Custom Referrals Wait Lists to save you time.
2. From this point onward, new referral comments will now appear at the top.
3. A new Outpatient Review List is available that is easily identifiable and contains additional face up information.
4. Referral rejection correspondence is using the ‘reason of removal’ to exclude certain letters and ensure that only appropriate referral rejection letters are sent to patients.
5. The default option for the referring unit for external referrals has been changed to make the clinician referral easier.
6. All clinical staff now have the same registration and scheduling access to use within their scope of practice.
7. Clinicians can now amend or cancel an MBS billing order, while in ‘ordered status.

To complement the EMR system changes, additional support will be provided to medical staff in Specialist Clinics over the coming month.  This includes the recruitment of a Clinical Informatics Medical Officer – Outpatient Optimisation lead, whose focus will be on engagement with each of the units.

We continue to focus on leveraging existing communication channels with Operations and Clinical Managers to provide updates for all affected staff.  A summary of all EMR updates is also available on the new EMR Updates page.

We’re extending Western Health’s well-integrated solution for documenting and managing patient care to the Bacchus Marsh and Melton (BMM) sites. The BMM Digital Health Transition project will enhance the flow of healthcare information across the organisation, ensuring seamless, safe, and effective patient care. 

Following the EMR Future State sessions that were held in December 2023, the project team is working through EMR workflow gaps and solutions with BMM representatives.  

A key element of the BMM Digital Health Transition project is the extension of Western Health’s iPM and BOSSnet systems to BMM sites.   The non-production build for EMR, iPM and BOSSnet is now complete and ready for system testing.   

We will continue to work closely with BMM representatives and announce the updated project timeline and Go-Live date as soon as possible. 

Introduction to the EMR Drop-in Sessions and Training 

We were thrilled that more than 300 BMM staff attended the “Introduction to the EMR” Drop-in Sessions that were held on site at Bacchus Marsh and Melton between 15th January and 9th February 2024. 

These in-person and online sessions introduced the basic functions of the EMR to staff who have never used the EMR before and were an optional first step in the EMR learning journey, before the in-depth training sessions.  

During the same period, the Digital Health Training team ran on site ‘EMR for View Only’ training sessions for more than 95 clinicians.  These BMM clinicians will now have the ability to view the clinical information of patients referred to them from Western Health’s Sunshine, Footscray, Williamstown and Sunbury sites.   

For more information on training or to organise ‘EMR for View Only’ training for your team, please email the EMR trainers at WHS-EMRTrainers@wh.org.au 

The Digital Health team has launched an EMR discovery project for Western Health’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Services, marking a significant step towards enhancing patient care.  

Building a robust and patient centred EMR system for mental health requires a deep understanding of existing workflows, challenges, and opportunities. That’s why we’re embarking on a comprehensive discovery phase that involves extensive research, data analysis, and most importantly, the invaluable insights and guidance of Western Health’s staff involved in Mental Health and Wellbeing patient care.  

In addition, ‘EMR for View Only’ training has been approved for Mental Health and Wellbeing Services. This is a step towards EMR access for the division and will allow select staff to expand their EMR knowledge in advance of any Mental Health EMR modules being implemented. If you work in Mental Health and Wellbeing Services and have been selected to receive ‘EMR for View Only’, you will have received an email noting your auto-enrolment into the respective WeLearn training. Once staff have completed their training, appropriate access to the EMR will be granted. 

For staff who would like to expand their EMR knowledge, additional support is available from the Digital Health Learning team in the form of virtual or face-to-face training. 

The Digital Health team is working with clinical staff on EMR Mobile Apps to provide access to the ‘EMR on the Go’, using a handheld device or a smartphone. This will assist clinicians with easier access to clinical information, especially at the point of care when they are working with patients. 

We are exploring several features and functionalities. These include:  

• Connect Nursing enables nurses/midwives to complete documentation and access important patient information at the point of care.  
• Camera Capture allows clinical photography to be captured and uploaded directly into the patient’s medical record. For example, for visual tracking of wound care, or in theatres. This improves visibility of important clinical care information and maintains patient security. 
• PowerChart Touch enables clinical staff to review important patient information and contribute to the patient’s record on the go.  

Following a successful three-month pilot of PowerChart Touch and Camera Capture in 2023, we’re making plans for a broader rollout in the coming months.