Healthcare Software and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in Tasmania have reached an agreement for the state-wide implementation of HCS Discharge Summaries. The contract involves implementation and support in all major public hospitals in Tasmania for at least three years.
David Yacopetti (DHHS Tasmania) and Rob Wells (HCS).
The comprehensive discharge summaries provide a critical channel of communication between hospital staff, allied health professionals and patients, improving patient outcomes through promoting a more complete continuum of care.
Data is pushed from a number of different sources, including patient administration systems (PAS), labs and dispensary systems and is aggregated with information stored in PharmCare, a medication management solution. The data is then available to create individual discharge summaries, which can be sent electronically to any or all the patients' community care providers.
This announcement follows the Patient Discharge Medication Review (PDMR) project held at the Launceston General Hospital in early 2007. The project was conducted in accordance with NEHTA standards and some early results included:
- 62.1% of discharge summaries were sent to the GP within 2 days of the patient's discharge from hospital;
- 100% of hospital medical officers surveyed thought it improved the quality of information sent, and most found it easier to use than paper discharge summaries;
- 96% of GPs receiving PDMR summaries considered that it contained relevant and useful information for ongoing care of their patients;
- 72% of GPs reported that it had reduced their need to make follow up enquiries.
The discharge summaries have continued to be used in the Launceston General Hospital following the completion of the project and will be fully operational in the other two sites by the end of June 2009.