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5.1 Adapt private medical practice to incorporate telehealth and e-prescribing in “business as usual” without detracting from face-to-face medicine.
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- Telehealth Medicare items that fairly compensate doctors for patient and non-patient contact time, while ensuring appropriate oversight and governance to ensure continuous evaluation and evidence-based quality of care.
- Doctors are more accessible to patients while reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission – with access to non-GP specialists particularly important for rural and regional patients.
- Options for telehealth between a GP and a carer or nursing home nurse on behalf of patient, where patients are non-communicative.
- Ensure appropriate tools are available to assist practitioners in adoption of telehealth and e-prescribing, designed in a way that improves workflow.
- Remote monitoring technology will facilitate equitable healthcare, in particular for private medical practices in rural and remote areas.
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- Number of telehealth Medicare items for GP and non-GP specialists.
- Number of patients choosing telehealth as an option for care.
- Conversion to 50 per cent e-prescriptions by end of 2022.
- Government funding for innovations in rural health and technological infrastructure.
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5.2 Patients empowered to track their health data and access follow-up care.
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- Secure, private health information access for doctors and their patients.
- Seamless access to medicines through e-prescribing.
- Widespread use and adoption of the My Health Record, with a specific focus on supporting non-GP specialists.
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- Increased uptake of the My Health Record by specialists.
- Increased patient satisfaction in practice-based questionnaires.
- Expanded upload into My Health Record.
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5.3 Implement ehealth solutions to deliver doctors and patients health information seamlessly across different parts of the health system.
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- Each person involved in care has current information about the patient that they need for the best possible quality care.
- Development of a standard of interoperability across the health system.
- Patients are supported with education for, and access to, digital health and assistive technologies to receive high-quality care at home and maintain independence.
- Decision-making and health literacy are improved.
- A national focussed attempt to improve digital maturity through workforce training initiatives, eliminating fax use, promoting secure messaging uptake, etc. via directed improvement payments or grants.
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- Communication and coordination improved.
- Improved access by hospitals to GP notes.
- Increase in patients receiving high-quality, appropriate care at home instead of in acute care settings.
- Health literacy indicators improved.
- Measurable improvement in use of secure messaging and reduction in use of fax.
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5.4 Liaison with colleges and universities to incorporate management and leadership training as well as ehealth training as a routine part of their education requirements for students and registrars.
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- Incorporation of leadership and ehealth units of study with assessment in training programs.
- Expanded capacity for remote learning (training and educational opportunities, especially for trainees in regional/rural sites, and potential remote supervision).
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- Australian Medical Council accreditation guidelines adjusted to reflect this need, with 100 per cent conversion within 3 years.
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