Client Industry -Mental Health

Barwon Health is the largest regional health service in Victoria, providing integrated acute and community care to the City of Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and South West Victoria. The Barwon Health mental health service operates across acute and community settings and has close relationships with GPs and NGOs in the region.

Client requirement

Barwon had three disparate mental health information systems. They required a single solution to manage their patient/client care, improve communication between health care teams, and conform to Victorian mental health reporting requirements.

DCA's solution

In 2004 DCA entered into an agreement with Barwon Health to implement an integrated mental health solution based on The Care Manager. The system went live in September 2005 and satisfied a number of key objectives:

• integrate patient information with the iSoft patient administration system using HL7, based on the Barwon Health UR# and the state-wide mental health ID
• combine existing clinical systems into a single mental health information system for use by psychiatrists, nurses and administration staff
• meet legislative requirements for privacy and confidentiality
• generate all key assessment, care planning and clinical documentation in an integrated client history
• improve communications between divisions within mental health, particularly between emergency, drug and alcohol programs and community mental health
• automate notification of admission to hospital and communication of discharge medications using the HL7 interface.

Customer benefits

At the ACHS accreditation in May 2005 Barwon Health received a commendation for Information Management and an overall rating of Extensive Achievement, of which The Care Manager and its integration with the hospital patient system and the discharge summaries system was a major feature. The in-depth accreditation report stated:

"The information system .......will position the management and staff to have information that supports their systems of care. They (Barwon Health Mental Health Service) are commended for their vision in developing this initiative"