As part of an effective integrated care model, improving the flow of information to the GP about a patient’s health journey beyond primary care is a key focus area. A 2019 survey of Mid North Coast (MNC) GPs found that the majority of respondents wanted to receive ADNs. The MNC ADN pilot has been designed by eHealth NSW’s Integrated Care Program in partnership with the Mid North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD). The pilot is intended to improve the flow of information to the GP about a patient’s health journey beyond hospital care, and is designed to help shape a future statewide solution. Clinician experience and feedback will inform the pilot evaluation.

• List of MNCLHD ward abbreviations

Click here to see examples of ADNs.

The MNCLHD pilot is using the standard event summary template — the event summary is a HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) product similar to the event summary template in My Health Record and existing electronic discharge summaries (eDS).

The MNCLHD pilot will run for six months and will include all patient-nominated Mid North Coast GPs. The patient has nominated their GP to receive their health information and therefore opt-out is not available.

If you have feedback about the pilot or the future development of the ADNs solution, please use this form.

There are a number of reasons that you may not be receiving notifications. Please check these troubleshooting steps:

1. Refer to your clinical software / IT provider to check that a) your NASH certificate is up to date, and b) the ADN template has been correctly configured.
2. Refer to your secure messaging broker to a) ensure that you have the most up-to-date version for your secure messaging, and b) confirm they are not experiencing technical issues.
3. Ensure that your GP details have been updated with both the clinical software and secure messaging broker.

If these measures are unsuccessful, please use this form to request assistance from the MNCLHD pilot project team.

Discharge Summary

The clinical handover of a patient on discharge from hospital generally occurs using an electronic discharge summary (eDS). A discharge summary is a collection of information about events during care of a patient by a provider or organisation, in a document produced during a patient’s stay in hospital, as either an admitted or non‑admitted patient, and issued when or after the patient leaves the care of the hospital.

Discharge Notification

Discharge notification messages are sent when a patient is discharged from the hospital as an alert to update physicians. Discharge notification is primarily to notify the physicians of the discharge and does not contain the detail of the discharge summary.

In some cases a discharge summary is not completed.

Click here to see the clinical areas that do not complete discharge summaries.

If you have received an ADN for a patient who is not enrolled at your practice:

• Notify MNCLHD so they can update their patient record (see the notification for details).
• Destroy / dispose of the notification.

If you have received an ADN for a patient who is no longer enrolled at your practice:

• As above, steps 1 and 2.
• Only where a current consent or request for medical information from the new GP is in place, pass the ADN through in accordance with this consent/request.

Please click here to ask any questions about the ADNs — a member of the MNCLHD working group will be in touch to assist.

Click here for questions on ward or department coding.

For ED

If you are sending a patient to ED, you should be calling via the switch to ED ahead with a physician-to-physician handover regarding the patient and the issues at hand.

For any other contact in ED, ask to be put through to the following:

• Day shift – there are two consultants on shift – either contact the consultant named in the summary or ask the switch to be transferred to the other consultant.
• Night shift- the senior registrar on the day.

For inpatient

The best way to contact treating teams is to ask to be put through to the JMO working for the consultant named on the summary, via switch.

The MNCLHD ADN pilot will be evaluated to help inform the development of a possible future statewide solution. Clinician feedback will form part of the evaluation.

Ad hoc feedback and suggestions received via this form will be included.

Two clinician surveys — at three and six months — will provide opportunities for formal evaluation feedback.