Cross-region health partnership boosts digital healthcare

The region currently operates under the Grampians Rural Health Alliance digital strategy, and health leaders say services connecting staff, patients and services can be taken even further under the proposed new regional health service.

Grampians Rural Health Alliance and Ballarat Health Services chief information officer Kate Nolan said the alliance has worked together to upgrade infrastructure, improve cybersecurity and create a shared digital record across all their health services.

"Together we could expand some of the clinical and non-clinical initiatives at Ballarat Health Services such as data analytics and reporting and embed some of these skills and systems and introduce them to Wimmera, Stawell, and Edenhope," Ms Nolan said.

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"From a patient and consumer perspective, imagine the ease of providing your details once rather than multiple times. For the health services, previous time spent on administrative duties could be spent elsewhere, prioritising care for our communities."

Collaboration between health services' IT departments has already begun, with staff from the Wimmera Health Care Group on secondment to Ballarat Health Services.

Wimmera Health Care Group director of Finance and Corporate Services Mark Knights said the relationship between the two services has led to increased education and allowed them to access a greater staffing pool.

"Currently we have IT team members from Wimmera Health Care Group on secondment to Ballarat Health Services, to manage the IT service desk and do some specialised work to improve the region's network. In return, if we have critical staff going on leave, we can fill positions temporarily without us having to worry about loss of service," Mr Knights said.

"In terms of the IT workforce, the skills are quite niche, and it can be tough to recruit for. There is talent in the regions, however career progression previously has been limited. Now they can have those opportunities to advance and learn while staying local."

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