Many patients leave a consultation with a referral for a blood test or visit a practice with a paper report and an x-ray film.
In Australia each year there are approximately 16 million diagnostic imaging examinations performed and 33.6 million pathology episodes. Up to one in six (17 per cent) of pathology and diagnostic tests are unnecessary duplicates. This adds between $162 million and $306 million annually to health costs.
There are issues with the current processes for diagnostic tests which include misdiagnosis, illegible and poorly completed request forms, no record of attendance and inadequate screening of previous medical conditions before testing.
Many diagnostic service providers have well established processes and systems for the electronic storage and communication of pathology information, but there is often considerable variability of terminology and system capabilities between diagnostic service providers and requesters.
eDiagnostic tests include both pathology and diagnostic imaging, which will be available in the next two years.
eDiagnostics will:
- Allow practices to receive and access diagnostic reports electronically with confidence that the test results are linked to the right patient and care provider
- Save time by not having to match diagnostic result reports with requests
- Reduce the chances of mis-matching when results are received
- Save time by not having to manually enter the details of a request into the provider systems
- Save time by reducing the need to respond to queries about requests and reports