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Primary/Acute Care Interface Data Project

Improving the transition of care between hospitals and the community

Health Translation SA wants to better use the rich supply of healthcare data in South Australia to enhance and improve continuity of care and to ensure a coordinated and smooth progression of care as people transition between our hospitals and the community.

  • Background Brief
    Jul 2020
  • Consumer Report
    Oct 2020
  • Situational Analysis
    Nov 2020
  • User Survey & Workshop
    May – Jul 2021

Health Translation SA (HTSA) is working with our partners in education, research and healthcare services to address a significant health system challenge. To develop coordinated and smooth progression of care as people transition between our acute and primary care sectors (known as the ‘primary/acute care interface’).

As this is a significant and multi-faceted challenge to address our project will focus on one key aspect: access to and timely flow of accurate information between care providers and the patient. We are exploring how we can build on current digital health initiatives and health service reform to improve care as people transition between the hospital and community setting.

The Project is being driven by the Primary/Acute Care Interface Data Project Steering Committee comprising healthcare professionals, researchers and community members. This committee meets monthly and reports to the HTSA Board.

 

For more information on the project please read our Background Briefing Paper.

Read Background Paper

As the aim of this project is to develop a coordinated and smooth progression of care between the primary and acute care sectors, it is important that we encompass and understand the patient perspective in all aspects of the project.

In October we ran 2 focus groups where we invited patients and carers to share their experience of the healthcare as they transitioned in and out of hospital care. We were really interested in exploring what community members valued, what was working and what could be done better. Communication and coordination of healthcare were seen as critical to care as was the importance of knowing and understanding patients as a whole person and their specific life context.

The full Consumer Report can be downloaded below.

Read Consumer Report

A situational analysis was conducted in Sep/Oct 2020 to:
• understand the problems associated with continuity of care across the interface from the perspective of consumers, clinicians and the health system, and
• identify relevant data assets, projects, and expertise that can contribute to the development of the solution.

It was conducted by HTSA project staff and was informed by a series of discussions with health service decision makers, primary and acute care clinicians, as well as patients and carers. The major findings are summarised in the figure below, and the full report is available for download.

 

Read Report

The next step in the project was to develop the user requirements for a technical solution that provides real-time two-way transfer of patient medical information between general practice and  hospitals.

To achieve this we:

  1. Conducted an SA wide survey of consumers and clinicians exploring
    • At what points in the patient journey will real-time access to a patient’s complete medical record significantly improve care and patient outcomes
    • What information (data) is most useful at these timepoints
    • What issues or concerns need to be addressed?
  2. Ran a workshop – to co-develop the user requirements as informed by the survey results.

Survey results (illustrated below) showed that entry to the hospital via emergency department, outpatient referral or admission as an inpatient, as well as discharge from all these settings back to GP care were critical points in a patients’ journey where connected healthcare information would significantly improve care.

The most critical information required related to medications, medical and family history, investigations, allergies/intolerance and investigations.

These results were used as the basis for the user-requirement workshop held in June 2021. The outcomes of the workshop are available in the report below. 

Download Workshop Report

This project is supported by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) as part of the Rapid Applied Research Translation program. (MRF9100005).

Project Steering Committee

  • Ali Krollig (Co-Chair)
    Director-Health Policy
    Country SA Primary Health Network & Adelaide Primary Health Network
  • Prof Susan Hillier (Co-Chair)
    Dean of Research, Allied Health & Human Performance
    University of SA
  • Prof Tarun Bastiampillai
    College of Medicine & Public Health
    Flinders University, Southern Adelaide Health Network
  • Dr Emily Kirkpatrick
    Deputy Chief Public Health Officer
    Medical Advisor for Primary Care/COVID-19 GP Liaison
    Department for Health and Wellbeing
  • Tina Hardin
    Executive Director, Clinical Informatics
    Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health
  • Adam Philips
    Clinical Informatics Specialist
    Allscripts Australia
  • Dr Santosh Verghese
    Chief Medical Information Officer, Digital Health SA
    Department of Health and Wellbeing
  • Michele McKinnon
    Executive Director, Commissioning and Performance
    Department for Health and Wellbeing
  • Chris Bollen
    GP & Director BMP Healthcare Consulting
  • Dr Gokhan Ayturk
    Manager, Research and Ethics
    Aboriginal Health Council of SA Ltd. (AHCSA)
  • Lana Earle-Bandaralage
    Community Representative
  • Wendy Keech
    CEO
    Health Translation SA

Project Enquiries

Dr Ecushla Linedale
Health Translation SA
Ecushla.Linedale@healthtranslationsa.org.au

  • South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI)
  • The University of Adelaide
  • Flinders University
  • University of South Australia
  • Torrens University Australia
  • Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health
  • Adelaide PHN
  • Country SA PHN
  • SA Health
  • CSIRO
  • Aboriginal Health Council of SA

Health Translation SA

Copyright © 2023 Health Translation SA

Postal address:
PO Box 11060
Adelaide SA 5001

Our staff team location:
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
North Terrace
Adelaide SA 5000

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Health Translation SA is an accredited Advanced Health Research and Translation Centre by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

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