Barwon Health Community Electronic Medical Record system delayed
A new medical record system at Barwon Health has been hit by serious delays.
Geelong
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A multimillion-dollar electronic medical record system at Barwon Health is significantly delayed.
The community electronic medical record (EMR) system was due to be rolled out last year, but is only being tested now.
The project’s planned delivery end date was listed as August last year on the state government’s IT dashboard.
Its planned delivery cost was listed as $6.07m.
The project is jointly funded by the Department of Health and Barwon Health.
Barwon Health did not comment on whether the delays had impacted the cost of the venture.
Its chief information officer Andrew Macfarlane said the development of a community electronic medical record was an important initiative that would better support the continuity of care for patients using its services.
“The EMR will replace legacy systems and improve consumer health outcomes by enabling our staff to work more efficiently and effectively,” he said.
“The project is nearing development completion, and testing of the platform is underway.
“Whilst originally scheduled to be complete in 2023, the complexity of the solution took longer than anticipated to define and build.
“It is now expected to go live in the second quarter of 2024.”
The project started in 2022.
That year, Barwon Health said the EMR would digitise health records for community and mental health patients, providing real-time access to clinical information, resources and appointment times.
At the time, the Addy reported it marked the organisation moving away from a largely paper-based system, and there was no imminent change to the records system in inpatient settings.
Barwon Health in 2022 said the solution was one of the first platform-based solutions for community-based health services across the Victorian public health system and was part of the state digital health strategy to improve health outcomes.
On the government dashboard, the project’s status was red, which it is understood means serious issues existed.
According to the IT dashboard, it was deemed red due to an issue with the “cadence of user story capture and development build”.
A state government spokesman said: “Our state’s digital health road map is a blueprint for building a health system that can deliver world-class care for all Victorians no matter where they live in the state.”
“Electronic medical record systems are a part of this road map and ensure patients will benefit from a safer and more efficient system when they are getting care at health services,” he said.
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Originally published as Barwon Health Community Electronic Medical Record system delayed
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