What is the status of electronic health records?
Most general practices and many public sector health service providers use electronic health records. DoH is now providing Personally Controlled EHRs to all citizens and permanent residents upon request. The National E-Health Strategy, an intergovernmental strategy on health information technology, has been published, and the National E-Health Transition Authority has been set up in order to develop patient identifiers, interoperable systems between providers, and a clinical terminology and information service. The Authority reported that 4,500 organizations (not including hospitals) were registered to use Personally Controlled EHRs in July 2013. The national strategy on health information is managed by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Committee (an intergovernmental committee of senior health administrators), and the National Health Information Agreement in place between governments and other key agencies aims to develop, collect, and exchange data in order to improve the health of the population and the delivery of health services.