My Health Record a key to medicine safety
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia believes the My Health Record system can significantly contribute to improved medicine safety in Australia and welcomes the Commonwealth’s commitment to continually improving this important digital health program.
This week the Digital Health Agency agreed to all five recommendations made by the Australian National Audit Office in its report Implementation of the My Health Record System.
“Overall, the report found implementation has been largely effective. Its recommendations focus on privacy and security of health information and the Digital Health Agency has undertaken to work with stakeholders to raise standards in health information management,” Pharmaceutical Society of Australia National President, Associate Professor Chris Freeman said.
“Uptake and participation are vital to the success of My Health Record. Therefore, ensuring both providers and patients are confident information is safe is essential.”
PSA is pleased the participation rate for pharmacies stands at 90 per cent, but would like to see more utilisation across the health care sector.
“The usage for healthcare provider organisations is growing and we’d certainly hope that as people come to understand the benefits this tool offers, we see that quickly increase.
“My Health Record’s potential to improve health care and save lives relies on the quality of information contained.”
PSA’s Medicine Safety: Take Care report highlighted the impact a shared digital health record can have on care.
National implementation of the My Health Record will help pharmacists improve medicine safety. Access to a complete medication history will provide pharmacists with the opportunity to proactively intervene to both document and reduce adverse reactions, with improved documentation leading to less use of contraindicated therapy and the availability of the complete medication history enabling better detection of multi-medicine interactions.
The availability of hospital discharge summaries within My Health Record will provide the opportunity for pharmacists to proactively prevent and resolve medication-related problems post-discharge with medication reconciliation and review.
Media contact:PSA Media Phone 0487 922 176 media@psa.org.au
