06 August 2024
The Australian Digital Health Agency’s Provider Connect Australia (PCA) service has been upgraded to allow clinical and practice management software system to connect to the service through a SMART on FHIR interface.
PCA allows healthcare providers and business partners to maintain accurate and up-to-date business information in a single place that can then be published to multiple partners.
Developed by the agency, it serves as a one-stop shop to reduce the need for multiple phone calls, emails or faxes to business partners when updating healthcare service and provider information.
An agency spokesperson said the recent upgrade means PCA can now use SMART on FHIR to connect to a practice management or clinical system to import details of the practitioners at the practice rather than having to manually enter them into PCA.
SMART on FHIR is data standard that enables applications to access information in electronic health record systems.
“As software vendors release their SMART on FHIR capabilities – which many have in their roadmaps – they will be able to support this PCA integration with minimal additional development work,” the spokesperson said.
The upgrade also sees the IAR mental health initial assessment and referral tool allied to PCA following an idea from COORDINARE, the South Eastern NSW PHN.
The agency spokesperson said the IAR tool produces a score reflecting the level of care required by a patient with mental health care needs.
While the tool itself is not integrated into PCA, it does allow providers of mental health services to record the level of care that they can provide and to publish that information into the National Health Services Directory, where referrers can use it to refer their patient to a suitable service, the spokesperson said.
The agency is in early discussions with the providers of the Healthpathways care pathways system regarding the potential for them to onboard as PCA business partners, they said.
And in future, software vendors will be able to update their own directories using the health information exchange (HIE) consolidated directory that is under development by the agency, which will include information from PCA.
ADHA CEO Amanda Cattermole said PCA will play a foundational role in the HIE by leveraging it to receive complete, accurate and up-to-date information about healthcare providers, the services they provide and the places that those services are delivered.
“The HIE will create and use a consolidated directory of all healthcare provider organisations and practitioners, the services they deliver and the places those services are delivered, leveraging PCA and other existing services to receive complete, accurate and up-to-date healthcare provider information” Ms Cattermole said.”
Source: Provider Connect Australia now SMART on FHIR-ready for practice management – Pulse+IT
