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Clarity on COVID immunisation status on My Health Record
The ADHA has issued new guidance to ensure patient records are correctly linking with up-to-date immunisation data.
Recent upgrades to My Health Record (MHR) include a new consolidated view of immunisation details from the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) and the individual’s record, making it easier for healthcare providers to view their patients’ information.
To support the Australian Government’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout, data from all states and territories is now flowing into MHR. Healthcare providers can access this data through their clinician information system or National Provider Portal.
The vaccination data will appear on the MHR as soon as it is reported to the AIR. Mandatory reporting legislated in March means registered vaccination providers are required to report the administration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations to the AIR.
To avoid any confusion and ensure patients’ Medicare information settings are correct to have the up-to-date AIR data displaying in their MHR, the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has issued the following guidelines:
The ‘Yes/No’ setting, used to consent to immunisation information in the MHR, needs to be set to ‘Yes’ for the immunisation information to flow into the system within 24 hours.
Dr Rob Hosking, Chair of the RACGP Expert Committee – Practice Technology and Management, believes GPs also need to be aware that information may not correlate with the patient’s version of their immunisations.
‘If there seems to be inconsistency, then GPs can check the AIR via PRODA [Provider Digital Access] which should be accurate, as the problem is the linkage for some patients between the AIR and the MHR,’ he told newsGP.
‘If this inconsistency is found, suggest the patient go into their MHR, via MyGov log in, and change the Medicare settings to allow the AIR to connect to the MHR. GPs cannot change the settings themselves.’
According to the ADHA, GPs and other healthcare providers should ensure they have visibility of pre-existing conditions, allergies and medicine history at the time of immunisation, which may be useful in assessing potential allergic reactions or side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
To further correct any discrepancies in individuals’ MHR immunisation documents, Dr Hosking said the ADHA is working towards a more seamless system to support patients and healthcare providers.
‘[The ADHA] is looking into a possible system-wide correction of this anomaly that has occurred with patients who had their old MHR – back in the PCEHR [Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record] days – created by assisted registration,’ he said.
‘In some of these cases, the “upload Medicare data” box may have been unticked as the record was created. At the time it was not foreseen that this would stop the flow of AIR data to the MHR.
‘Patients who had their MHR created by default after the January 2019 opt-out [deadline] will not have this problem unless they have intentionally turned off AIR upload to MHR in their Medicare settings.’
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