St Stephen’s Hospital in Hervey Bay, Queensland, has become Australia’s first fully integrated digital hospital, following its official opening in December.
UnitingCare Health's (UCH) $96 million private hospital features integrated operations, equipment and services to deliver a nearly paperless system. While patients from older facilities will still need to have their records scanned, new patients will be given a fully electronic record on admission.
Digital clinical systems include automated record feeds and care pathways, alerts and paperless prescriptions and medication management.
Physicians will have access to records, health alerts, vital signs and test results in real time on mobile devices, both inside and outside the hospital.
The hospital also has data linkages with Hervey Bay Public Hospital, other UCH facilities, universities and diagnostic providers.
UCH executive director Richard Royle said many Australian hospitals have trialled or implemented digitisation, but he said St Stephen's was the first hospital to completely integrate and digitise all its activities.
Federal health minister Peter Dutton said the hospital had embraced eHealth technology even before the foundations were laid.
“Digital technology can make health care far more efficient and more effective for patients and providers,” Dutton said.
“Given the demands on our health system - from an ageing population, rising levels of chronic disease and ever-rising consumer expectations - creating new efficiencies is essential.”
The federal government provided $21.2 million to equip the hospital with eHealth technology.
Dutton said the Department of Health will work with St Stephen’s to monitor the effectiveness of the electronic system.
“We will use the lessons learned from St Stephen’s paperless prescribing, dispensing and claiming trial to refine the hospital electronic medication chart, which will soon be in widespread use in Australian hospitals,” he said.
Electronic medication charts will start to be introduced in private and public hospitals in the 2014-15 financial year, according to the minister.
Photo: Conrad Gargett
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