Simon James wrote:
1. Is anyone aware of a lab that doesn't offer messages in HL7?
No, but I believe that they exist.
2. Is anyone in a practice where the number of result downloading programs has recently consolidated? What prompted this and what solution was adopted?
Since installing Argus and starting to receive our test results from Clinpath (the local Sonic lab) via Argus, we have removed Clinpath's software Fetch from our server. We don't miss it at all.
It was prompted by my practice's strong wish to stop having to scan in correspondence or to have to manually import it into the patient's record from messages received in our normal email stream.
We look forwards to removing all other clinical messaging software from our server once the local medical imaging practice that is testing Argus now starts using it to send its reports.
3. Are GP list members making any headway with the task of getting specialists to adopt secure messaging products?
Yes. Thanks in part to the Argus project being run by the Adelaide North East Division of General Practice and also because of my practice's strong promotion of Argus, I am now receiving correspondence from an increasing number of local specialists via Argus. It makes such a difference. Our receptionists don't have to open mail, handle faxes, stamp anything as received, put anything in to doctors' in trays, scan the letters or file them - they can just do their reception work.
Every referral that I post or fax carries a two page explanation of why my paperless practice wants to communicate only electronically via Argus, what Argus is and where and how to get it, our strong preference to refer to colleagues who are using Argus, and a list of their local specialist colleagues who are already using Argus.
Additionally, our practice letterhead carries a paragraph expressing our strong preference to communicate via Argus and points the recipient to the ArgusConnect Web site.
Is low specialist uptake/interest the major stumbling block preventing secure messaging from proliferating in your area?
In my experience, many or most specialists are quite interested. Many reply that they are just upgrading their computer systems and that this is a very opportune time to add Argus to their systems. The use of Genie is growing rapidly amongst specialists in Adelaide and I believe nationally, which is good because Genie has Argus functionality built in.
The major impediment to increasing use of secure messaging is that GPs are not clearly demanding that all other health care and welfare providers send information about our patients *only* via a secure clinical messaging system that delivers their messages into our clinical in boxes, *and* allows us to send messages to those providers securely. These other providers include hospitals (public and private), medical specialists, residential care facilities, home nursing agencies, and many others including State-run smear test reminder and screening mammography services, Centrelink, workers' compensation authorities, motor vehicle licencing authorities, public housing agencies, Meals on Wheels, and so on. The list includes anybody who ever sends us anything about a patient or wants us to complete a form or write a letter about a patient.
4. What secure messaging solutions are you using and what factors influenced this decision?
We have Argus by choice and a bunch of others that were installed by pathology practices or medical imaging practices to download their results. The systems other than Argus are proprietary, secret, deliberately incompatible with each other, use processing power, need maintenance and pose unknown security risks.
5. For practices that are using secure messaging solutions, has the initial time/financial investment paid off yet?
Yes.
6. What questions haven't I asked that I should have?
Whether GPs are aware of the issues that I have listed above: that is, the undesirability of using multiple download clients that are proprietary, secret, deliberately incompatible with each other, use processing power, need maintenance and pose unknown security risks.
-- Oliver Frank, general practitioner 255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens, South Australia 5086 Phone 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 Mobile 0407 181 683 _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
