Closed: 16 December 2016
Patients are required to interact with multiple healthcare professionals or organisations in different physical locations. In order to provide high quality, effective and safe healthcare, there has to be efficient communication between general practitioners and other healthcare providers involved in a patient’s care. Secure electronic communication is currently one of the most efficient methods of communication.
The RACGP would like to see the elimination of paper forms in general practice within three years. There are however a range of concerns that members may have with the increased use of electronic forms. In September 2016, the RACGP released a position statement: The use of secure electronic communication within the health care system. This outlines support for the following principles for electronic communication between general practice and other healthcare agencies:
- all electronic communications templates and systems should use existing data and information from general practice clinical information systems to pre-populate documents and forms
- all communications should be
- created and sent from within the general practice’s electronic clinical software system and
- automatically received into the local patient electronic health record via the clinical software system inbox
- all electronic communications to external healthcare providers and agencies should be sent securely using secure messaging to align with best practice data privacy handling principles to protect patient privacy and confidentiality.
The RACGP sought feedback on what challenges you face in increased use of two-way secure electronic communication; completing forms for corporate and government agencies, as well as your reasons for using electronic forms.
Results from this consultation were published in In Practice on 16 December 2016.