Digital Health
Digital health plays a crucial role in enabling healthcare providers to collaborate and deliver coordinated care. CESPHN supports the primary healthcare workforce in embracing digital tools and technologies to boost efficiency in service delivery and enhance health outcomes across our communities.
CESPHN remains committed to supporting the Australian Digital Health Agency in driving progress on Australia’s National Digital Health Strategy. The strategy aims to meet the evolving needs of Australians who actively engage in managing their health and wellbeing through digital tools, while fostering a healthcare system that champions connectivity, prioritises person-centred care, and enhances the overall quality of services delivered. In the last year CESPHN has built upon the national digital health priorities and engaged in extensive consultation process with our stakeholders around the priorities for local healthcare professionals and consumers to develop CESPHN’s Digital Health Strategic Plan for 2026-2030.
Quality improvement training and support
1,151
practice interactions (visits, phone calls, TeamViewer sessions)
18
events
7
face-to-face events (focused on RACH staff and allied health professionals)
- From November 2024 the Digital Health and Practice Support and Development teams have been proactively engaging practices enrolled in Practice Incentive Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI) in data driven continuous quality improvement activities. This engagement resulted in average increase of 5.3% across the 10 Quality Improvement Measures with the highest increase being recording of Diabetes (T2) at 7.8%.
- The team continues to assist residential aged care homes by facilitating access to telehealth equipment and delivering education and training to support the implementation of My Health Record. 5 face-to-face My Health Record information and networking sessions have been delivered to RACH staff. To date, 133 RACHs – accounting for 90% of all facilities in the region – have acquired the required equipment. 20 additional telehealth carts were delivered in the last financial year, bringing the total to 52. 15 additional RACHs are now registered to use the My Health Record system, bringing the total to 69.
- CESPHN received funding from the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) to engage and educate allied health professionals on digital health initiatives, including My Health Record, National Provider Portal, My Health App, Provider Connect Australia (PCA), electronic prescribing, and Active Script List (ASL). As part of this project, CESPHN delivered two in person CPD events and two webinars which led to an increase of seven new MHR registrations, three new PCA registrations and two AHPs adopting electronic prescribing.
- Since 2019, CESPHN has been engaged in the Lumos data linkage program, playing an active role in recruiting and assisting general practices involved in this important initiative. The program enables the connection of deidentified practice data with NSW Health datasets, offering valuable insights into patient pathways throughout the health system. One of its key areas of focus is hospital presentations, with data currently being contributed by 174 general practices.
- 95% of general practices in CESPHN use secure messaging delivery technology.
- 319/485 general practices with the compatible clinical information system (almost 66%) are connected to the National Cancer Screening Register, making CESPHN one of the PHNs with the highest participation rate.
- HealthLink Smartforms/eReferrals technology allow healthcare professionals to submit referrals directly from clinical software platforms such as Best Practice, Medical Director, Genie, and MedTech. The adoption of this digital system continues to rise among providers, supported by the ongoing expansion of eHealth NSW’s Engage Outpatients Program. This initiative enables GPs and primary care practitioners to securely refer patients to NSW public outpatient clinics via an electronic system, replacing outdated methods like fax and email.
- Within Sydney Local Health District, 29,503 eReferrals were sent to hospital clinics, (up from 18,300 in the previous year). South East Sydney Local Health District implemented eReferrals in late 2023 and have significantly increased to 22,416 eReferrals sent this year, in comparison to 3,700 in the previous year.
- The team has also been involved in registrations and support of My Medicare, a voluntary patient registration model which aims to formalise the relationship between patients, their general practice, general practitioner (GP) and primary care teams. 366 general practices are registered in My Medicare and 129 in GP Aged Care Incentive, which improves healthcare access for residents in the residential aged care homes.