P R O J E C T R E P O R T
CLANWI L L I AM HEALTH CREATE S COV I D - 1 9 E - NOT I F I CAT I ON FORM I N RECORD T I ME TO HE L P I N THE F I GHT AGA I NS T THE PANDEM I C
PAUL GRAHAM CLANWILLIAM HEALTH
at the beginning of the pandemic he wanted to do everything he could to help find an alternative to faxing Covid-19 notifications. “It took lots of collaboration by many people to make it work. Waitemata DHB’s Clinical Advisor Digital Innovation Dr Lara Hopley led the project with many healthAlliance members joining in to make it work seamlessly.” Auckland and Northland now have a fast, reliable and secure way to notify suspected Covid-19 cases. In this ever-changing situation, the ability to also be able to collect insightful patient data and quickly update the form remotely is helping in the fight against Covid-19.
necessary to implement multiple iterations of the form in a short space of time – something that would usually take weeks or months to do. Northland DHB HealthPathways and eReferral clinical leader Dr Di Davis says four versions of the form were delivered in record time due to Clanwilliam staff working through the nights and weekends. “They have been crucial in enabling our public health team to deliver what was required of them,” she said. In those early days particularly, not much was known about the virus so the data collected in the forms was, and still is, invaluable in forming a broader picture and understanding of Covid-19. For example, data about symptoms could be extracted to get a better understanding of how the virus was manifesting itself. Extraction of the data has also allowed: • Automated text notification of negative test results, resulting in a huge reduction of public health staff usage. • Easy supply of Ministry of Health data requirements/reporting.
New Zealand’s first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported to the Ministry of Health on 28 February 2020. With the virus now in the country, and numbers set to increase, GPs needed a quick, reliable and secure way to notify suspected cases to public health officials. Following New Zealand’s first few confirmed cases of Covid-19 in early 2020, the Auckland and Northland DHBs asked Clanwilliam Health in mid-March to develop a Covid-19 e-Notification form to simplify and streamline the notification process. The Covid-19 e-Notification form enabled GPs and CBACs (Community Based Assessment Centres) to notify suspected cases of Covid-19 via CareConnect to Auckland metro DHBs (who in turn were able to report into Auckland Regional Public Health) and via Northland DHB e-Referrals to their public health unit. The development of the form was completed in record time and went live at the end of March 2020. Clanwilliam Health staff paused work on everything else to complete the form and worked from home (in lockdown) to ensure it was up and running and ready to go live ASAP. What’s unique about the e-Notification form is that as the case definition and testing requirements changed rapidly, it was
To date, more than 740,000 notifications have been sent electronically.
GP and healthAlliance Chief Clinical Information Officer Dr Karl Cole says
WANT TO KNOW MORE ? Paul Graham | paul . graham@c lanwi l l iam.hea l th
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