ACT Health hunts down next pathology system

ACT Health has kicked off the search for the territory’s new pathology laboratory information system that was funded in this year’s budget.

The system will replace the existing Kestrel pathology laboratory software used by the ACT hospitals to conduct more than two million group tests each year.

The health directorate was funded with $18 million, including $6.7 million in capital, in the June territory’s budget, part of a $40 million windfall to replace several core IT systems.

The new cloud-based system is expected to be capable of supporting the pathology process end-to-end to improve efficiency and the patient experience.

ACT Health is now looking for a supplier to build and operate the system for an up to the next 15 years.

The software-as-a-service solution will need to integrate with the agency's other core systems such as the Orion internal ordering system eOrders and be accessible across a range of channels, including mobile devices, to allow real-time access to information.

It will also be expected to connect with external services like the national My Health Record system and NSW’s state-wide HealtheNet clinical portal to “support integrated and coordinated care across the broader health ecosystem”.

The system should also be able to link-up with a not yet funded digital health record, which the agency plans to introduce over the coming years as part of the territory’s 10-year heath digital health strategy.

It hopes to have signed a contract and begin planning the system in April 2019, with the system to become operational from January 2021.

ACT Health has already moved to electronical cross-reference patients with their pathology orders and medication using a barcode system in a bid to eliminate errors at the point of care.

Clinicians are now required to scan both their own and the patient’s barcodes before a specimen label can be scanned and printed.