Australia’s largest health district to use Patientrack e-obs

Australia’s largest local health district (LHD) is to use the e-observations platform from UK-based Patientrack to collect and analyse vital signs data.

Hunter New England Health – which provides a range of public health services to the Hunter, New England and Lower Mid North Coast regions – will implement Patientrack in more than 43 sites in the district.

Patientrack is an e-observations technology allowing clinicians to record vital signs on mobile devices rather than onto paper charts. The software automatically calculates a patient’s early warning score, and alerts relevant clinicians if there is cause for concern.

Digital Health News has previously reported on its implemenation at a number of UK organisations, including St Helen’s and Knowsley, Western Sussex, and NHS Fife.

Hunter New England Health is to initially implement Patientrack at Maitland Hospital over the next few months and will then progressively roll it out across the rest of the area.

Patientrack is marketed and delivered in Australia and New Zealand through sole distributer MKM Health.

Kate Quirke, CEO of MKM Health, said Hunter New England Health’s adoption of the system demonstrated Australia’s interest in Patientrack’s ability to “improve patient outcomes whilst supporting the existing clinical workflows in place within the clinical setting”.

She said the firm will ensure the information collected via Patientrack is available to other systems, so that data can be used with the NSW Health shared electronic medical record.

“We will work with Hunter New England Health to deliver electronic medical record functionality and to demonstrate the broader benefits of enhanced clinical documentation at the bedside and improved communication across clinical teams.”

A MKM Health spokesman said the new deal builds on previous success for Patientrack in the Australasia region, where in New Zealand this past May, Counties Manukau District Health Board became the fourth organisation to choose Patientrack technology in just over 12 months.