British Telecom To Explain To Australian Clinicians about Clinical Risk in E-Health. What?

This just arrived!

BT wins health contract down under

BT has made significant strides in the Australian health care market after winning a contract to provide BT Health Sentry - a clinical risk management system -to the country's National E -Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).

The deal is a joint effort between BT Health and BT Australasia and builds on a previous contract where BT was required to audit NEHTA's clinical safety programme.

BT Health head of clinical risk management, Martin Ellis, said: "BT Health has a world class clinical risk management capability.

"We have delivered to the exacting requirements of the NHS National Programme for IT and contributed to the development of international standards and are now growing our profitable clinical risk management business.

"Our capability forms a cornerstone of BT Health's value in the market and is a key differentiator."

Secondment

BT says the deal represents an important next step into the health market within Australia.

BT Health will provide NEHTA with a licence for Sentry, consultancy to support its implementation, and the secondment of an interim clinical safety officer from BT Australasia to NEHTA.

The federal and state governments of Australia have given NEHTA the task of identifying and fostering the development of the technology necessary to deliver the best e-health system.

Martin said that by assisting NEHTA to establish this central clinical risk management function, he hopes Sentry will be recommended across Australia - opening the market for future business.

The press release is here:

http://www.btplc.com/Health/MediaandIndustry/Newsboard/Contractdownunder/index.htm

This is just staggering and is just an insult to all the clinicians who are familiar with clinical risk and e-Health in Australia.

Sorry to be a bit ‘jingoistic’ but we have plenty of expertise in this area at home.

As for NEHTA’s choice – where is the release that explains their process in awarding this work outside Australia?

Did anyone see a tender for this work that I missed?

We all need to remember that the National Program for Health IT in the UK, while a very good thing, is hardly blemish free.

Just what is the need and requirement Australia can't meet in this regard - having one of the best and safest health systems in the world - admitting it could still be better.

Heck even.

David.