The NSW Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network (JH&FMHN) has gone live with the Orion Health EMR (electronic medical record) Suite to support the organisation goal to deliver complete electronic medical records across the New South Wales public health system. 

The Orion Health product suite will specifically provide a critical platform for the Justice Health electronic health system’s (JHeHS) migration to a computerised record of a patient’s medical history related to the clinical care received while in JH&FMHN. This will contain a subset of information previously held in paper medical records including patient details, medical conditions, appointments, pathology results, electronic forms and medicines prescribed.  The data is now held in one consolidated place and therefore available state-wide as opposed to being held in multiple paper files and stand-alone electronic registers.

JH&FMHN is a Statutory Health Corporation that delivers health care to adults and young people in contact with the forensic mental health and criminal justice systems. It is responsible for providing comprehensive health services in a wide variety of settings and facilities and cares for over 30,000 patients annually

The Orion Health solution will enable the replacement of manual sharing of information between JH&FMHN and other health care providers by implementing applications that will support the patient journey and in turn aid clinicians in their decision making processes and improve communication between clinicians by providing information at the point of care.

At the same time, JH&FMHN is digitising paper based health records and manual processes such as faxing and posting of pathology results.

“In the past, as patients are continually moved between correctional centres, courts and the community, the information has not always followed the patient in a timely manner.  Our aim is to use technology as a key strategy to support clinical teams to deliver safer care for patients and to strengthen local decision making capability,” said Susan Harman, Chief Information Officer, JH&FMHN.

The Orion Health deployment will support a centralised approach to receiving, disseminating, endorsing and actioning clinical results, and facilitate the continuum of care regardless of the patient’s location or the number of times the patient is transferred.

As part of the deployment, the Orion Health Rhapsody Integration Engine will streamline and speed message handling between applications and the organisation’s patient administration system, and provide the scalability that will be essential to meeting Justice Health’s requirements moving forward.  Key benefits include the engine’s ability to send and receive messages from multiple sources, display information in a standardised way regardless of source, and provide consistent results reporting regardless of the source of the resulting data.

In addition, Orion Health’s Clinical Portal will be deployed by JH&FMHN providing a single entry point for all clinical users to access and contribute to the patient’s medical record.  The aim is to provide clinicians and healthcare providers with a seamless view of all patient information, including a patient summary screen, problem and allergy information, and notifications of events integrated with electronic results reporting and clinical forms.