Patients First - Enabling Quality through Information
06 September 2011
The Patients First Programme, co-sponsored by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP), General Practice New Zealand (GPNZ) and the National Health IT Board, has been working hard over the last 18 months to fill in some of the gaps in primary care information, especially as it relates to quality. Two key pieces of work came to fruition this past week.
The Patients First Programme is involved in a wide range of activities to enable quality through better information. They will keep you up-to-date with progress on other projects and activities in coming months. Visit the Patients First website for more information.
Minister launches GP2GP at 2011 Conference for General Practice
Health Minister Tony Ryall launched the Electronic Patient File Transfer - otherwise known as GP2GP - at the 2011 Conference for General Practice. GP2GP puts patients at the heart of the system, providing the capability to all general practices to electronically transfer their patients' electronic medical records safely, securely and in a way that retains content and meaning when received by another practice.
GPs across 65 practices who have been part of an initial limited rollout are enthusiastic about the new functionality. Dr Richard Medlicott recently observed that what used to take hours of work is now able to be performed in under ten minutes. With the success of the testing over the last two months, GP2GP is now generally available in Housten and MyPractice systems and will be released in version 20 of MedTech 32 (general release is targeted for October to all practices). IntraHealth is targeting October for the release of Profile for Windows PMS. This functionality will be part of the core modules within the PMS.
Congratulations to Andre Bredenkamp and the GPNZ team for delivery of this project and to the vendors. The project had previously been with the Ministry of Health for a number of years before being handed to Patients First in mid 2010 to drive the final design, development and delivery. More information on GP2GP here.
Health Quality and Safety Commission adopt the Health Quality Measures NZ Framework
Patients First developed the specifications and infrastructure for a quality measures library earlier this year. The aim was to create a resource to enable work around quality measures to then be shared within the sector.
The Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) has adopted the Health Quality Measures NZ Framework following the recent announcement that they will be using the framework as the vehicle to introduce new quality measures into the New Zealand health sector.
Thanks go to the College team who were pivotal in the design of the approach and process. It is planned that the College will be using it in future measures relating to clinical quality modules and for CORNERSTONE.
More information on the Health Quality Measures NZ Framework here.