The South Eastern Sydney Medicare Local (SESML) is working with integrated care experts HSAGlobal, who will support it in delivering better coordinated care across primary, secondary and community healthcare providers for the local population of 450,000.

 

HSAGlobal is based in Auckland, and works with clients in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, the USA, Canada and the UK to help them provide integrated care for patients with complex, long-term conditions.

 

Medicare Locals are primary health care organisations operating throughout Australia to coordinate primary health care delivery and tackle local health care needs and service gaps in their communities. One of the key roles that the 61 Medicare Locals play in their community is the coordination and integration between various health professions, bringing them together to provide better patient care and make the best use of health system resources.

 

“HSAGlobal has worked with a number of organisations to deliver integrated care and we feel confident that they have the experience to support us with both their consulting and project management expertise and their software as we improve health service integration in our area,” says South Eastern Sydney Medicare Local CEO Lynelle Hales.

 

SESML will use HSAGlobal’s Collaborative Care Management Solution (CCMS) initially to manage two of its mental health programmes, Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) and Partners in Recovery, which the Medicare Local has recently received funding approval for. Partners in Recovery aims to support people with severe and persistent mental illness with complex needs and their carers and families. It does this by getting all those involved in their care to work in a more collaborative, coordinated, and integrated way. CCMS is a clinical and management information system purpose-built for the integrated care of clients with long-term conditions, chronic disease or complex needs, and will provide a platform for health professionals to actively work with each other in caring for a client.

 

“CCMS is designed to support this integration, with multiple healthcare providers being able to share information about a client’s care and contribute to a shared plan. We see a real advantage to our clients in having all members of their care team working from the same plan and being able to communicate and collaborate securely and in real time.”

 

As well as benefiting clients, who won’t need to repeat information each time they visit a healthcare professional, CCMS will reduce manual processes and administration for SESML and improve clinical and management reporting.

 

SESML provides support to primary health care providers over 400 square kilometres. The Medicare Local has plans to extend its use of CCMS to cover other programmes for clients with complex health needs and to better integrate with Local Health Districts.

 

(Source: Scoop Media)