South Western Sydney PHN assists practices to implement electronic discharge summaries.
Discharge summaries enable patients to receive continuity of care after a hospital event and provide the practice with the information they need to know about the episode of care the patient received while in hospital.
There is a wide range of variations in health facilities around discharge summaries, but the most significant issue is that discharge summaries are often misplaced and do not reach the intended practitioner.
Electronic discharge summaries will be sent electronically and contain information about a patient’s episode of care, including their diagnosis and medication while in hospital, to provide the practitioner with the information required to determine the patient’s ongoing care needs.
Electronic discharge summaries will:
- Save time at the practice by not having to chase up information from the hospital
- Improve the process of discharge transfer to ensure that the right information is held in the right place
- Improve continuity of care through accurate and timely communication and clinical handover across practitioners
- Reduce scanning and faxing
- Ensure discharge summaries are clear and legible removing the risk of miscommunication through illegible handwriting
- Provide the opportunity to share discharge summaries with a wider range of practitioners involved in the care of a patient, such as allied health, specialists and aged care facilities
- Create efficient clinical systems through direct download of the discharge summary to clinical desktop
Receiving discharge summaries successfully
In order to successfully receive discharge summaries from SWSLHD hospitals the following five need to be set-up and correct:.
- NSW hospital eMR identifies if GP is e-capable to receive documents and the correct GP details and Provider Number OR HPI-O and HPI-I are recorded.
- The GP Secure Messaging broker also has the correct GP details and Provider Number OR HPI-O and HPI-I.
- The message broker used by the GP is either Argus, Medical Objects or HealthLink.
- Practices have current Medicare Site/Location PKI Certificate and NASH PKI certificate. For further details, practices should contact their secure messaging broker.
- The GP’s clinical software is upgraded to the latest version, i.e. the clinical software can manage CDA documents. For more information, contact your software vendor.
To ensure a GP receives a patient’s electronic discharge summary, up-to-date GP details must be maintained with the Local Health District and PHN representative.
Need help with electronic discharge summaries?
The Digital Health team at South Western Sydney PHN are ready to help practices implement digital health initiatives.
Ph: 4632 3000
Email: digitalhealth@swsphn.com.au