PCEHR for trauma patient presenting to Emergency Department



PCEHR for trauma patient presenting to Emergency Department

Introduction

As the information regarding the health of a patient is usually spread across a wide array of locations including the information related to general practices, specialists, imaging centres, hospitals, and allied health practices; a health record system was launched by the Australian department of health in June 2012. This e-health system called personally controlled electronic health record and commonly known as PCEHR is an electronic record having the details for a patient. It comprises of a summary of the information regarding a patient's health. It has been launched and implemented as a key element of the national health reform agenda in order to make the health system more responsive and sustainable.

PCEHR have been introduced in order to provide the healthcare organisations an easier and a faster access to greater information regarding the health of a patient. This will enable the health care providers to give continuing care with ease while improving treatment decisions by this efficient system (http://www.nehta.gov). According to the government, Australians who choose to adopt the system will be able to view important information related to their health, whenever and wherever they need it. This e-health system will also allow them to share this information with trustworthy healthcare providers in the country (www.ehealthinfo.gov).

PCEHR implementation is immensely important for trauma patients reporting to the emergency department as it enables the health service providers with the required information immediately. It also helps to save the time of the heath service providers which can be lost in gathering the required information about the patient. It helps them to access the nature of disease and the treatment to be given at a faster speed making the diagnosis and the treatment more effective and accurate. But there exist any difficulties in implementing that policy. The people are reluctant to sign the policy and avail the services of the new system. This is because of the several issues related to the privacy and control of information. Therefore proper steps are required to be taken in order to implement this policy effectively and make the people realize its benefits. The process should be two way engaging the customers in decision making before implementing any policy (Abelson et al., 2003).

Discussion

The initiatives for the introduction of the e-health system in Australia dates back to 1997 (Slipper & Forrest 1997) which after various steps taken by the government resulted in the formation of The National Electronic Health Records Taskforce in 1999 (NEHRT, 2000). Further steps were taken for the implementation of the policy and finally legislation was passed in June 2010. But the acceptance of the policy by the public is confronted with some issues. According to the policy, the government has designed the system such that the privacy of the patient is completely ensured. The addition of any information, selection of viewers and the extent of viewership will be at the patients discretion (www.racgp.org.au)Any health care provider can access the information in emergency, ...