Health Identity Programme Progress Summary
November / December 2011
These are exciting months for the Health Identity Programme with the first results expected in December from the Address Services (address validation service) pilot for General Practitioners(GPs.)
The e-SAM Address Service will help GP practices match patient addresses against New Zealand's most up-to-date databases and provide the geocoding information required for Capitation Based Funding.
e-SAM is being trialled by a selected 'early adopter' over the next two months before being made available for health IT vendors to adopt and integrate into Patient Management Systems early next year.
Auckland-based IT vendor, My Practice has been selected by the Ministry to trial the e-SAM service. The purpose of the trial is to test the technology in a 'real' environment to make sure it is fully functional before it is released to the wider sector.
Once integrated into Patient Management Systems, e-SAM will replace the GeoStan service, GeoStan will continue to be available for a limited time, but systems will need move to the new e-SAM Address Services by the end of 2012.
The next significant milestone for the Programme is the release of the Provider Person solution early next year. This will involve moving 'registered practitioner' data from the old Health Provider Index (HPI) to the new technology platform and exposing new web services. Once incorporated into software systems, this will allow health providers online access the Health Provider Index for the first time.
August 2011
The Health Identity Programme (HIP) is about to begin the staged roll out of new technology that will make New Zealand's health identity system more interactive and the data more secure and reliable.
The upgrade of the National Health Index (NHI) and Health Provider Index (HPI) is being undertaken gradually to minimise disruption to users. Various upgrades will be released and tested with selected voluntary users (early adopters) before being offered to the wider sector. Old and new systems will run concurrently for a time before the old system is decommissioned towards the end of 2012.
The new technology is being introduced in six staged 'releases'. We are about to launch release one.
What will happen during release one?
Release one has been split into two distinct launches. The first will be the new Address Service, followed by the HPI Provider Person solution, about a month later.
Launch dates are still being finalised but both services will become available to sector users once 'early adopter' testing is completed.
Why are we using early adopters?
We are using early adopters to ensure:
- our testing is robust
- limited disruption to wider services, in the event of unforeseen developments,
- we better understand the impacts of the change on a small number of users before involving the wider sector.
What we are delivering?
Two components of technology that will provide better information access, search and retrieval functions for GPs, hospitals and other health providers.
Address Service
This new service, once integrated into patient management systems, will offer more accurate data and better search functions, including:
- type ahead: when the end user starts typing an address, a drop down box will display with options for the user to choose from. Once selected, the address fields will be auto-populated
- find address: when the end user enters known details of an address, the 'find address' functionality will find and return the best match based on the data that has been provided.
HPI Provider Person
Once incorporated into software systems, this service will enable organisations such as District Health Boards (DHBs), community laboratories and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to access the HPI online. Specifically, it will allow search and retrieve of an individual practitioner's 'person' details.direct from the HPI. Information about the organisation and facilities they're linked to will be part of a later release.
Patient Data Model
Release two of the programme will implement the new Patient Index system. This will involve migrating data across from the current NHI and synchronising the two systems. Both will operate in parallel until the NHI is decommissioned at the end of next year. We are doing this to enable a gradual transition of NHI users to the new Patient Index.
In preparation for this release the Programme has been reviewing what data, related to individuals, the National Health Index system should contain. This work will underpin the development of the new Patient Index data model.
Project status
Resourcing and technical challenges have required some revision of the project plan, but the programme is currently on budget and preparing to deliver the first components of the new technology next month.
July 2011
The Initiation stage, which defined the scope and design of the programme, has now finished and two components of the technology will be released for testing by voluntary user groups (early adopters) in August.
These are the new Provider Person Index, which contains the names of registered health practitioners, and a new electronic address validation service with enhanced search functions. Both technologies will be released to the wider sector in October.
Other developments:
- After a successful tendering process the Ministry has chosen New Zealand computer infrastructure company Revera to host and support the new technology
- An extensive change impact assessment is underway to determine how the implementation of the Programme will affect users, IT suppliers and the wider health sector
- Communications channels are being developed to make sure stakeholders are kept informed.
Proposed changes under the Health identity programme will take place in six stages over the next 15 months. The upgrade is being done gradually to minimise disruption for users.
March 2011
The hosting and support RFP closed on the 7th March (the date was extended as a result of the Christchurch earthquake) and evaluation panel has undertaken assessment of the responses. A decision is expected in April where successful tender will be announced.
A Vendor Forum was held to ensure that vendors were aware of the programme and understand the potential impact on their current systems - particularly where they integrate with the existing national index systems.
The Board and SAG met to progress the design and requirements for the system. Topics for discussion included Eligibility, relationships, name types and unborn babies. The Sector Architecture Group focussed on the transitional arrangements for DHB, the logical data model and audit.
February 2011
The project has established the Health Identity Governance Board and Sector Advisory Group (SAG) to provide direction and advice on the project development. The Board and SAG have met twice and a Sector Architecture Group has been established to provide technical advice.
On 29th November 2010 Cabinet approved the Health Identity business case and work is now underway on detailed implementation planning. The selected suppliers (IBM and New Zealand Post) will officially start the project on 31st January 2011.
The first phase is a 10 to 12 week initiation during which the solution requirements will be confirmed and the detailed design agreed. Since the public announcement of the programme late last year the team have and have been engaging with key stakeholders from all parts of the sector seeking nominations for both the Programme Governance Board and Sector Advisory Group which will meet in early February.
The IBM project team started on site at the Ministry on the 31 January with Initiation Phase workshops to validate requirements and confirm detailed design. These workshops will engage the sector and are scheduled for completion in April.
IBM has begun training the Health identity Project Team and senior users on the initiate software solutions.
The Health Identity Project Team is now fully resourced with the addition of project co-ordinator and Test Manager.
The Hosting and Support RFP progressed with Registrations closed and RFP Panel meetings in preparation for RFP Evaluation in March.
January 2011
The first 3 months of the project will focus on the design of the services and include how the system will interface with users and other systems in the sector.
A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued in early February to identity a vendor to host and support the new health identity application software. The RFP is a key component of the overall programme and is needed early on to allow testing and production of technical environments in preparation for live use of the first deliverable of the Programme, the HPI, in the middle of this year.
