More than 93% of eligible public and community health services are now able to transmit the Victorian Health Incident Management System 2 Minimum Dataset (VHIMS 2 MDS) to VAHI on a regular basis, helping to make health care safer for all Victorians.
In a recent VHIMS forum attended by more than 100 health service representatives, VAHI CEO Dr Lance Emerson highlighted the dedicated work by health services to prepare themselves to transmit the VHIMS 2 MDS incident data to VAHI and the broader Department of Health.
Dr Emerson said VAHI would continue to work with health services to improve the process and increase health services’ capacity to report the dataset.
“Nearly all health services are now onboarded and we’re really keen to work together over the next 12 months to streamline the transmission of the VHIMS 2 MDS to VAHI so we can start making daily reporting a reality,” he said.
Interim reporting arrangements have been put in place for the 2022-23 financial year, with health services transmitting data via the VHIMS Application Programming Interface required to submit the VHIMS MDS weekly for closed incidents only.
From 1 July 2023 health services will need to begin daily transmission of the VHIMS 2 MDS for all new verified and updated incidents via API. Daily transmission of incident data has a range of advantages, including the ability to detect and mitigate safety concerns early, as well as identify opportunities for improvement work soon after incidents occur. Incident data will also be able to be updated and corrected in real time, as incidents are further investigated and resolved.
Daily transmission is already in place for health services submitting data via the department’s VHIMS Central Solution platform. These services should continue to enter incident data as per current practices.
VAHI also acknowledges concerns and challenges identified by health services both before and during the VHIMS forum. These include the reporting burden created by the number of data items in the MDS, issues with the capacity of the API transmission, and current resourcing and workforce constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The VAHI Safety and Surveillance team is working to make it easier for health services to submit incident data, with work to increase the capacity of the API transmission underway. Over the next 12 months we will be reviewing the current VHIMS 2 MDS to ensure that only the minimum necessary data items are included for submission to the department. We are also looking at ways to automate the transmission of incident data via the VHIMS API and support health services to implement efficient incident reporting processes.
Any changes to functionality or requirements will be developed in consultation with health services, with further opportunities to contribute to the future development of the VHIMS 2 MDS program being made available throughout the year.
For more information about VHIMS 2 MDS, reporting options and support available, please contact Anna Ezzy, Acting Manager Safety and Surveillance at [email protected]