Guidelines set for MHR

NEW My Health Record guidelines for pharmacists have been launched by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) this week.

The document provides pharmacists with an outline of the rules surrounding their use and access to a patient’s electronic health record.

The guidelines stress that “a patient’s My Health Record (MHR) should not be considered as a complete source of patient health information”.

Pharmacists accessing a patient’s MHR must use conformant software, or the National Provider Portal (however, this does not allow for documents to be uploaded to the record).

Pharmacies must be able to identify each person who accesses an individual’s record, and provide that information to the System Operator when requested.

The guidelines note that patient privacy must be upheld, however in emergency situations pharmacists may be able to disclose information if they reasonably believe that access is necessary to prevent a serious threat to the patient or another individual’s life.

Speaking at the launch of the guidelines in Darwin this week, Northern Territory Federal MP, Luke Gosling, voiced his support for pharmacists having access to patients’ MHRs.

“The work of pharmacists is so important and anything that we can do that is preventative, that helps people to manage their medications is going to mean better health for everyone,” he said.

“And the people who have that expert knowledge are pharmacists.”

To date close to 5,000 community pharmacies have registered to use the MHR, with more than half of those actively using the system, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia revealed.