Hunter Primary Care is a health and wellbeing organisation located in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It was established with the aim of providing quality primary health, mental health, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander, NDIS and after-hours care to the Hunter community through a network of health professionals.
Hunter Primary Care’s focus is on providing an effective primary healthcare system that meets the needs of the community and keeps people well and out of hospital.
The Challenge
Hunter Primary Care operates with five unique business units—NDIS Services, Chronic Disease Services, Mental Health Services, After Hours Services and headspace Newcastle program. Each business unit had its distinct processes and workflows, information was duplicated and there was a high administrative cost to managing client data.
The fragmentation of client and operational data across business units impeded care and performance visibility. The consolidation of client and operational data for effective decision-making and funding was a complex and labour intensive task. Staff members faced the challenge of adapting to a number of different systems, limiting an efficient and cohesive operation.
The Solution
The solution was for Intrahealth to partner with Hunter Primary Care resources to strategically implement Intrahealth’s Profile client information management software. Business processes were reviewed across the organisation and a software architecture model implemented to facilitate organisaitonal efficiencies while recognising the uniqueness of each care delivery program.
The decision made early on in the planning process was to implement Profile in a in a phased manner, transitioning each business unit sequentially to facilitate lessons and a continuous improvement methodology. This included Clinical Dashboards for real-time insights, Case Budgets for financial management, and a robust Referral Management system. The Profile instance also facilitated reporting for funders and the relevant Minimum Data Sets.
These solutions optimize operations, empower healthcare professionals and position Hunter Primary Care to deliver enhanced and collaborative healthcare services to its community.
“Bringing together our diverse business units into a unified ecosystem has proven invaluable for streamlined care coordination. With a cohesive framework that integrates NDIS Services, Chronic Disease Services, Mental Health Services, After Hours Services and headspace Newcastle program., our healthcare professionals now operate within a singular, interconnected environment.”
Jack Hanson, Corporate Services Executive, Hunter Primary Care
The Benefit
Intrahealth’s Profile instance implementation at Hunter Primary Care, with Clinical Dashboards, Case Budgets, and a Referral Management system, ensures real-time insights, optimized financial management, and improved coordination. Profile configurable reporting facilitates compliance and valuable planning data.
The Result
The result is that a health and wellbeing organisation facility with multiple care delivery programs and funding sources like Hunter Primary Care, can remove information silo’s, streamline operations, reduce administrative overhead, empower healthcare professionals, and enhance collaborative healthcare services for the communities while ensuring compliance for funders through implementing Intrahealth’s Profile client information management software. Further, the flexibility and configurability that Profile provides allows Hunter Primary Care to adapt the system they continue to evolve their services and grow as an organisation.
About Hunter Primary Care
Hunter Primary Care is a nonprofit organization in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), dedicated to supporting people in healthy lives for nearly 30 years. Their commitment extends to the broader Hunter community, where we collaborate with a network of trusted health professionals to deliver a comprehensive range of health services.
https://hunterprimarycare.com.au/
