My Health Record

A My Health Record is a secure, electronic record of a patient's medical history, stored and shared in a network of connected systems, which brings key health information from a number of different systems together and presents it in a single view.

Communicare has attained full My Health Record compliance from the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).

My Health Record access

The My Health Record repository can be accessed by authorised healthcare providers.

To register for access to the My Health Record repository and for more information, contact the Department of Health and Ageing at http://www.ehealth.gov.au

Accessing a My Health Record in Communicare

To upload documents to, or download documents from the My Health Record, the following modules must be enabled on the File > System Parameters > System tab:
  • My Health Record Access
  • My Health Record Assisted Registration

Before enabling My Health Record access, the following information needs to be obtained and set up.

Table 1. My Health Record access requirements
Entity Requirement Description
Organisation Valid HPI-O Recorded on File > Organisation Maintenance > General tab
Encounter Place Valid HPI-O Recorded in the HPI-O Number field for the encounter place in File > Reference Tables > Encounter Place
Provider Valid HPI-I File > Providers

Set against the correct log on username.
Provider Belongs to a user group with the My Health Record Access system right enabled File > User Groups

The My Health Record's security model does not support Communicare's viewing rights. Communicare recommends that only users who have full Viewing Rights should access the My Health Record.

After you have collected and set up this information, contact Communicare Support to arrange installation of the My Health Record module.

In the Offline Client, you can generate My Health Record documents, but they are not uploaded to the My Health Record until after you are back online and have synchronised to the online client.

The Demo version of Communicare connects to the test My Health Record Service. Searches and validation cannot be done on real patients, providers or organisations using the Demo version.

Patient registration and consent

When you add a new patient to Communicare, you can also register them for My Health Record.

For Communicare to upload information to a patient's My Health Record, the patient must:
  • Have a valid IHI recorded on the Personal tab of their biographic record

    Communicare validates a patient's IHI when it uploads documents to the My Health Record repository.

  • Be registered in Communicare for a My Health Record

    From any tab in a patient's biographic record, click My Health Record iconMy Health Record Registration to open the My Health Record Assisted Registration window.

  • Have consented to upload information to the My Health Record, for more information, see Upload Consent

    Set a patient's consent or refusal on the Administration tab of their biographic record.

    If a patient opts out of uploading records to the My Health Record, clinicians are warned when they generate My Health Record documents and the Do not send reports to My Health Record is set in pathology and imaging requests.

For patients who are registered with My Heath Record, the Patient registered with MHR iconOpen My Health Record icon in their clinical record displays a green background.

Using My Health Record in Communicare

To access a patient's My Health Record information, in Communicare, in the patient's Clinical Record click Patient registered with MHR iconOpen My Health Record > View Health Record Overview or Prescription summary iconPrescription & Dispense View.

If the patient has set an access code, they will need to supply it so that the clinician can view the patient's record.

Uploading Documents to a My Health Record in Communicare

If a patient has an IHI, you can generate and upload the following documents to My Health Record:
  • eDischarge Summary
  • eReferral
  • Shared Health Summary
  • Event Summary
To generate and upload a document from Communicare:
  1. In the clinical record, click Patient registered with MHR iconOpen My Health Record > Generate a document. For example, Generate MHR document iconGenerate a Shared Health Summary.
  2. In the document, select the elements that you want to include in the document. Ensure that you do not include sensitive data.
  3. Click My Health Record iconSave and Upload to My Health Record.
An entry is added to the Progress Notes tab in the clinical record to show that a document was generated.
Example MHR entry in Progress Notes

The document will be queued and will upload to My Health Record when the background process is next run.

Until they are sent, documents are listed on the Documents and Results iconDocuments and Results > Outgoing tab with a status on Pending. Any processing errors are also displayed here.

If a patient's IHI is not valid, you will see an error such as Patient doesn't have a valid IHI.

Tip: If you resolve a problem that was stopping a document being sent, such as a network error or IHI validation, to upload the document to My Health Record, on the Documents and Results iconDocuments and Results > Outgoing tab, right-click the document with an error and select Resend Document.

In the Offline Client, documents are not uploaded to the My Health Record until after you are back online, have synchronised to the online client and the background process has run.

For more information, see Clinical Document Architecture (CDA).