The Silliest Press Release We Have Ever Seen from NEHTA.

The following was released by NEHTA a few days ago.

Australia launches leading edge e-health supply chain location directory

17 March 2010.The first electronic location directory, connecting healthcare purchasers and suppliers around Australia, was officially unveiled in Melbourne and Sydney this week. The central registry, known as GS1Locatenet GLN Directory for Healthcare, will improve the speed and accuracy of supply transactions helping to reduce hospital operating costs and save lives.

The service is the result of an ongoing partnership between the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), which built the National Product Catalogue (NPC) with support from public sector health authorities, and GS1 Australia (www.gs1au.org), a member of an international not-for-profit standards and services organisation. GS1 Australia hosts the NPC.

.....

At the launch in Melbourne on 17 March 2010, NEHTA’s Head of Strategy Andrew Howard said GS1Locatenet was a major breakthrough in the development of Australia’s national e-health system replacing current manual processes with a quicker, more accurate method of transacting with suppliers.

“Receiving the right products, at the right time and in the right location has enormous safety benefits for patients, as well as massive savings for the healthcare businesses involved,” he said.

“Every year, a number of patient deaths result from incorrect prescribing. Correct ordering and timely delivery can significantly reduce this risk.”

“The electronic system also has major benefits inside a hospital making inventory management and distribution easier and improving traceability and recall procedures for sensitive goods, such as drugs.”

ENDS

Read the full release here:

http://www.nehta.gov.au/media-centre/nehta-news/618-supply-chain

You can down load an absurdly large 3 page glossy brochure from here:

http://www.gs1au.org/assets/documents/services/locatenet/s_gs1locatenet.pdf

or you can read all about it here:

http://www.gs1au.org/services/locatenet/

Let me say the actual system sounds like a very good idea and well worth implementing as it will uniquely identify (where have we heard that lately?) locations where supplies are to be delivered from a central directory.

Of course, given it seems to cost, to the organisation for each location you allocate a GLN to, one wonders just how rapid adoption will be. I guess that is why they are free unil June 2011 so you can try before you buy!

But the last four paragraphs (and especially paragraph three) of the release are arrant nonsense and reveal either a totally brain dead Head of Strategy or much more likely a very over-excitable NEHTA Communications Person.

I am at a total loss, as I am sure you are, to work out how accurate delivery of supplies will reduce incorrect prescribing! Are inventory men and store-men prescribing these days and I was not told? This is just fantastic drivel and someone should be ‘taken out and shot’ for making such ludicrous claims. E-Health needs to be delivered on the basis of fact not absurd spin. Talk about working hard to dispose of any remaining credibility!

Can someone get NEHTA back to planet earth please?

David.