Health Identity Programme
What is the project doing?
The Health Identity Programme will deliver a single integrated system that will lay the foundation for a secure and transferable electronic shared care record. It will replace the existing technology platform supporting the National Health Index (NHI), Health Practitioner Index (HPI) and associated address services using a approach that enables systems to 'talk' to each other.
Importantly for users the existing NHI and HPI numbers will remain the same. This programme focuses on the 'behind-the-scenes' technology that supports these indexes.
Why is it being done?
It is important that the right health care information is available when and where it is needed to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of health care services. The existing NHI system is almost 20 years old and requires upgrading to ensure that it supports the sectors delivery of high quality health care.
The current system is running on obsolete technology with limited documentation, expertise and support. The new system will address the following limitations with the current NHI and HPI:
- Availability: the current NHI system does not provide the high availability service required to meet current and future demand. This has resulted in providers undertaking additional administrative tasks and limited the number of practitioners who can access the NHI, medical warnings system and other clinically relevant information.
- Authorisation: there is limited ability to perform audit and track access to the NHI. This has limited the number of users who can access the NHI and resulted in a high volume of calls to the NHI Contact Centre.
- Accuracy: suboptimal searching has increased the chances of patients being not being identified correctly and resulted in a significant number of duplicate records. This can create patient safety risks if clinical decisions are based on this incorrect or incomplete information.
- Agility: existing identity systems lack the ability to 'talk' to other systems and are difficult to modify. As a result the sector has to spend more money to build 'workarounds' for their e-Health solutions which is time consuming and costly.
The Health Identity Programme is an important infrastructure investment that will enhance person-centred care and enable secure access to an individual's own electronic health record by:
- Providing an authoritative, reliable source of national health identifiers that will support moves towards person centred care and joined up (federated) electronic health records
- Reduce back-office administration and system support costs, and enable improved patient safety
- Improve sector efficiency and reduce costs for future e-health solution development
- Mitigate risks of operational failure of the NHI
What changes will be noticed?
There will be some visible changes for end users who currently access the NHI and HPI indexes. These include an updated web service interface for connecting to the NHI and improved search algorithm which is expected to return a smaller more accurate result set to reduce the proportion of duplicates being created. The new platform will also include improved functionality for managing merge and duplicate records, and will enable providers to undertake near real time PHO enrolments. Some training will be required to ensure users are able to take advantage of the additional functionality.
DHB CIOs have been advised that they need to transition their existing NHI HL7 messages to a 'broker' to maintain service continuity during the implementation. The programme team will continue to keep the sector informed of any changes well in advance of the impact dates.
Contact Us:
If you have any feedback or questions please email the project team on enquiries@ithealthboard.health.nz with the name of the project and your comments. We will respond to you within 5 working days.
References
Cabinet approved Health Identiy Stage 2 Business Case
Health Identity Programe Frequently Asked Questions - updated 31 January 2011
