The single portal directory isn’t just for GPs and pharmacies, says the ADHA boss.
The Australian Podiatry Association has become the first allied peak body to sign up for the Australian Digital Health Agency’s Provider Connect Australia portal.
The PCA portal is designed to help healthcare providers maintain accurate information about the services they provide and the practitioners who deliver them in a single place.
One year after its launch, the PCA remains a “foundation” program of the National Digital Health Strategy.
“Our initial focus has been on supporting GPs and pharmacies to register but they are not the only healthcare providers that face large amounts of paperwork whenever health professionals join or leave their employment,” said ADHA acting CEO Peter O’Halloran.
“APodA’s registration to the PCA network underscores this service’s crucial role in ensuring the broader healthcare sector can benefit from the improved accuracy of provider and practitioner information, the reduced duplication and the streamlining of notifications that PCA offers.”
APodA CEO Hilary Shelton said understanding the health policy landscape was essential for advancing the podiatry profession.
“We can make significant strides forward by recognising how digital initiatives like Provider Connect Australia can reshape this landscape,” she said.
“It presents the profession with a clear opportunity to revolutionise how podiatrists manage their administrative requirements, alleviating some of the challenges.”
In February, Gold Coast-based health communications platform Foxo signed up to PCA.
According to the ADHA’s National Healthcare Interoperability Plan, “having a trusted national directory that accurately identifies healthcare providers and services is an important aspect of interoperability. This has been demonstrated in the covid pandemic”.
“Without an agreed source of truth to accurately identify health services, individuals, public health staff and healthcare organisations have the burden of navigating through multiple unaligned health directories,” the interoperability plan says.