Provider Connect AustraliaTM (PCATM) provides an easier way to inform business partners, including Medicare, secure message providers, hospitals and healthcare directories, of changes to your practice. PCA provides a centralised location to update changes to the services your practice provides and the practitioners who provide them, which is then published to all of your business partners.
Watch this video to see how it works:
The Australian Digital Health Agency initially designed Provider Connect AustraliaTM to resolve problems with discharge summaries not being delivered, or being sent to the wrong healthcare provider organisation or practitioner.
It was discovered practice details were not regularly updated, and mistakes were being made when there were updates because several forms, anywhere from 10 to 15, had to be manually filled and sent to each business partner by practices.
Many submissions contained duplicate information. Critical business partners were usually under-informed of practitioner or provider updates.
Benefits to your practice
Provider Connect AustraliaTM allows the practitioner or healthcare provider to update their information in one location and publish it to all their business partners. For example:
- Medicare
- secure message providers
- hospitals
- healthcare directories
Using PCATM saves practices time by preventing unnecessary duplications and reducing the likelihood of errors when filling out multiple forms.
PCA™ reduces data entry duplication and improves the accuracy and quality of healthcare service information. It lets you provide consistent, up-to-date information about healthcare services to funders, health service directories, communications services, and other key partners in your healthcare service delivery.
The use of PCA™ can significantly reduce the time spent updating business partners, ensures that updates are not missed, and reduces transcription errors that can occur with manual updates. PCA™ creates unique identifiers for healthcare services, service delivery locations and practitioners’ service delivery roles, allowing these to be reliably identified and linked across the healthcare system. These unique identifiers complement existing national identifiers for healthcare provider organisations and individuals.
Register for Provider Connect AustraliaTM
You can self-register with Provider Connect Australia™ in your own time. Visit digitalhealth.gov.au/pca-register to find out how to register, access the pre-registration checklist and watch a video that explains the registration process.
Once registered, you can update your business information and it will automatically be sent to your registered business partners. This means you can maintain a single master copy of your organisation’s details and your chosen business partners will automatically receive any updates.
As of December 2023, more than 1,900 healthcare organisations across Australia are using PCA™ and a growing number of business partners are coming on board. Increasing the number of business partners who register will ensure PCA™ is a valuable healthcare provider resource. Over time, business partners will include pathology and radiology services, public service directories, secure messaging providers, insurers and more.
There are plans to integrate PCATM into clinical systems such as Best Practice and MedicalDirector. When a new practitioner is added to your clinical management system this information will automatically upload into PCATM and publish to your business partners. There will be no need to login to PCATM separately.
Visit the Australian Digital Health Agency website for more information
Provider Connect AustraliaTM | Australian Digital Health Agency
Provider Connect AustraliaTM - Product Summary (digitalhealth.gov.au)
Q&As from 29 June 2021 webinar (digitalhealth.gov.au)
Need help with Provider Connect AustraliaTM?
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
Find out more about how SWSPHN helps practices implement Digital Health technologies