WA budget 2023: $100 Million for DMR, EMR, Virtual Care and Smart Referrals
Almost $100 million has been allocated to the completion of stage one of Western Australia’s electronic medical records (EMR) project in this year’s state budget, with an additional $8.2 million spent on its electronic referral management system and money already announced for its WA Virtual Emergency Department (WAVED) program.
Continued funding of $24.4 million for the WACHS mental health emergency telehealth service is also a feature, along with $28.2 million to modernise WA Health’s network infrastructure and $11 million to provide higher overall cyber resilience across the health system.
The WA Department of Health issued a request for information from EMR vendors on the feasibility and potential options for implementing a statewide EMR in 2019. It was a recommendation of the Sustainable Health Review and forms part of WA’s digital health strategy.
The 2022 budget included $4.4 million towards planning for the initiative, along with $38.1m to extend the existing Opal digital medical record system at a further five new hospital sites.
The WA government says it is investing an additional $99.4 million for stage one of the program to introduce EMR, which will finalise the implementation of the DMR program with single sign-on technology and virtual desktop infrastructure across all Western Australian hospital sites. WA hospitals use the Opal DMR from Altera Digital Health, formerly known as BOSSnet.
The government says the new investment will also see the implementation of an EMR with full functionality and clinical decision support capabilities in the intensive care units at both the Perth Children’s Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. The intention is that PCH will be the first hospital to roll out a new EMR throughout the facility.
There is also funding for the recently announced WA Virtual Emergency Department (WAVED) as part of a new $74.9 million investment to reduce the pressure on EDs.
Funding has also been secured for initiatives to streamline and improve patient flow, reduce avoidable hospital presentations, and expand options for discharging patients. These initiatives include $8.2m on dedicated reform teams to examine hospital processes and eliminate barriers to timely care; $7m to deliver stage one of a State Health Operations Centre (SHOC) to monitor, coordinate and facilitate improved patient flow and management of system pressures across the health system.
These initiatives are supported by the real-time demand data platform program, which will provide timely access to data to identify whole-of-system pressures, including inter-hospital transfers, bed occupancy, improved discharge planning, ED diversion strategies and ambulance ramping.
There is also the additional $8.2 million for improving access to outpatient care through the implementation of an end-to-end electronic referral management system, to support transparent and efficient specialist outpatient referrals as part of the whole of health system outpatient reform program.
“Longer term, the Smart Referrals System is intended to integrate with the WAVED and other digitisation initiatives to support seamless communication, reporting, and modern, high-quality patient care,” the papers say.