Hospital meds transitions

MINISTER for Health Greg Hunt has announced 15 new projects utilising data from consenting patients’ My Health Record (MHR) to improve the delivery of their healthcare, some with a focus on transitioning from hospital to community pharmacy.

The $8.5 million Digital Health Test Beds program will trial new approaches in chronic health, palliative care and post-hospital support.

Eastern Health and Monash University are undertaking a trial to help patients better manage their medication after they leave hospital.

More than 290 community pharmacies and 5,000 patients will be involved.

The projects will connect community pharmacists to information from hospitals to help patients with their medicines in the transition from hospital to home.

These connections will allow healthcare providers to provide useful patient-specific information about medicines in the transition period.

The program aims to reduce unplanned and early readmission to hospital resulting from medication errors, while utilising evidencebased research.

The Federal Government is investing $374.2 million to expand Australia’s MHR for every Australian by adopting an opt-out policy.

As reported a number of times previously, this means that every Australian will have a My Health Record by the end of 2018 unless they choose not to have one during the three month opt-out period that will run from 16 Jul to 15 Oct 2018.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Consumers Health Forum, Australian Medical Association, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and more have expressed support for the MHR program, Hunt said.

CLICK HERE for more details about the Digital Health Test Beds research projects.