Patient-centred, world class information technology
Our groundbreaking technology and hosting services have enormous potential for patients to access better health care as well as for health practitioners and research teams to communicate and share information securely with each other and with patients. This service is provided by our partners RGPG Ltd.
Central to this technology is our very own integrated technology solution for primary care, NZHealthNet. Developed since the mid-1990s by Rotorua Area Primary Health Services (RAPHS) health practitioners and our technology team in association with Advanced IT (Rotorua), NZHealthNet puts RAPHS and its members in the forefront of health information technology, not only in New Zealand, but worldwide.
Its unique patient-centric features and scalability enables it to cater to any kind of primary health care requirement, making it an attractive solution to other independent practice groups. Today health practices beyond the RAPHS members are purchasing the NZHealthNet technology, and universities and others in the health sector are choosing RAPHS as their research partner because our unique technology is already generating high-quality population health data.
NZHealthNet benefits for patients include:
- Increased security of patient records
- Health practitioners can refer to and update patient records from the patient’s private home, rest home accommodation or after-hours services, using a mobile data card or wireless links.
NZHealthNet benefits for users include:
- Access to your patients’ records from beyond the clinic. Authorised users can log on to the NZHealthNet system from home, rest homes or after-hours services with a mobile data card or wireless links.
- Opportunities for centralised business processing
- Access to common templates (e.g. leave application forms)
- Automatic alerts (e.g. newsletters, publishing)
- Increased security
- A 24/7 help desk
- Updates are performed seamlessly – without interrupting practice workflows
- Reduced costs for new terminals/workstation upgrades/servers
- Better protection from hardware failure
- Access to an active, regularly updated directory
- Access to global exchange, email and calendar functions
What’s ahead?
We are continually improving NZHealthNet to enable even better patient-focused care, to make smarter use of processing power and application development, and to minimise the risk of outages or data loss.
Features to be added over the next few years include:
Enabling all RAPHS databases to be hosted on NZHealthNet. This will provide one interface for various, authorised information views of patient-focused care, including key event summaries and transition of care. This would ease the burden on members’ practices/businesses of administering clinical programme’s delivery.
Welcoming onboard allied health providers. Pharmacies, laboratories, midwives, mental health providers, district nursing services and other providers will soon be able to integrate their systems with NZHealthNet system. This will allow collaboration, leadership and participation in health information strategies, and underpin a regional health population focus.
Access by patient-authenticated Smart Card and portable electronic health records. This will eventually form the foundation for community-wide, multi-disciplinary health care in the Rotorua region.
For more about NZHealthNet click here.