Abstract

Objective: This pilot study examined the utility pattern of electronic health record & clinic management systems in the region.

Methods: An anonymous one-paged survey form was sent either by email or facsimile to 100 randomly selected public & private Sexual Health/ HIV/ Hep C/ Women's Health/ GP (High Case Load ) listed in the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine Register of Public SH Clinics 2006 and the ASHM Directory 2006-2007. Responses on the clinics activities & utility for 2006 were collated.

Results: Response rate = 20% N = 20 clinics

Mean Occasion of service (OS) = 4812 MedianOS = 4150

(Range 162-20 000) 25% of clinics provided estimated figures only

Mean No. tests done = 5467 Median = 5474 (Range 224-20 000)

Nature of Clinics: SH 81.3% FP/Women's Health 18.8% GP 6.3% Other 6.3%

Clinic Software: SHIP 50% Other 25% Nil 25%

Regular Reports: None 62.5% Daily 37.1% Weekly 6.4% Monthly 37.5%

Quarterly 31.5% Annually 43.8% QA 37.5% Research 31.3%

Automatic Results download: Yes 43.8% No, plan to 25% No Plan 12.5% Unsure 18.7%

Hours of training provided to staff on clinic software: mean 61.8 hrs median 1 h (Range 0-500)

Funding allocated for clinic IT support in 2007: None 37.5% Unsure 56.3%

Yes 6.25% (Max $6000)

Funding allocated for IT support in next 3-5 yrs: None 100%

Discussion: Limitations of study: Small sample (100/355 clinics) and limited response rate (20%), the latter may indicate that issues of eHealth have not featured in the priority list of most clinics surveyed, as evident in the poor level of funding (>90% none or unsure) and training (median 1 h for 2006) allocations. Others trends and issues include: low ratio of utility compared to the functionality of the softwares & technology available; competing interests of policy & privacy etc. will be discussed with recommendations proffered.