Overview
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, in conjunction with the Federal Department of Health and Ageing, has embarked upon a major initiative aimed at assisting pharmacists to harness the enormous potential for using Information Technology to improve the quality and safety of prescribing, dispensing, PBS claiming and medication management.
The project focuses on processes and disciplines to be broadly implemented across pharmacy workflows in the areas of:
- The BMMS;
- The planned introduction by the HIC of the PBS online claims adjudication and processing;
- The impact of the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 in relation to the security, access to, integrity and endurance of local records systems and their storage; and
- The Improved Monitoring of Entitlements (IME) initiative.
These activities will complement and support, rather than overlap with, BMMS and other Government initiatives. They will improve pharmacies' capacity to operate effectively in current and future business environments, and realise benefits arising from changes in business processes, standards development, interface specifications, hardware support and pharmacy training.
This will also assist Dispensing Software Suppliers to interface to these initiatives.
One of the key outcomes of the project will be a draft set of Standards for Dispensing Software Developers, detailing the requirements for system change or output standardisation to ensure their users meet the new QCPP standards.
Stakeholder consultation is a critical determinant of success in this project, and we have already begun work with a range of specialist organisations on specific aspects of the project, especially relating to conceptualising the supporting business processes and architectures leading to the development of information content.
© Pharmacy Guild of Australia 2002