The VHIMS Central Solution (Option 1)

What is VHIMS Central Solution?

The VHIMS Central Solution (CS) is an incident and feedback management system that was jointly built by the Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI) and the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department). VHIMS CS is designed for the 39 predominantly smaller Victorian public health and community services that have their arrangements subsidised by the Victorian Government. The VHIMS CS has been operational in these Victorian public health services since 1 July 2019.

VHIMS CS is a web-based application that consists of two key functional modules (Incident and Feedback) and enabling technologies. Each module has components that include administration, data entry, management, actions and reports.

The key features of VHIMS CS:

• An incident module: here the user can create and manage clinical and OHS incidents and hazards. Includes notifications and action entry functionality.
• A feedback module: allowing for the creation and management of complaints, compliments and suggestions. Includes notifications and action entry functionality.
• An action component: comprising a ‘to-do’ list that can be monitored for task completion, allowing for action management and notification.
• An administration component: allowing for the management of settings throughout the web application. This covers users, teams, notifications and organisation details (such as campus and location).
• Reporting: including access to organisational data reports via Power BI, and full VHIMS data extracts for users with relevant permissions.

Key benefits of VHIMS CS:

• Improved user experience
• Built to collect the new VHIMS2 classification system and dataset, which is a simplified and easy to use version of the VHIMS incident types
• Data entry time has been reduced by up to 75 per cent
• Reduced number of questions
• Promotes ease of reporting multi-person incidents (i.e. behaviour/aggression)
• Able to be used on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile phone.

It is important to note that the VHIMS CS has been designed for predominantly smaller Victorian public health and community services that are less complex than larger metropolitan Victorian public health services. It is not possible to introduce additional functionality or make modifications to the system to suit individual Victorian public health service requirements. Victorian public health services wishing to have a customised instance, should consider the VHIMS Local Solution (LS) - Option 2. Read more…

Enhancements to VHIMS CS:

Functionality within the system to enable a link to fetch patient data such as patient name via the Department’s Unique Patient Identifier (UPI) system is currently being developed and is expected to be available in 2020-21. Only Victorian public health services that have been onboarded to the UPI will be able to access this functionality, noting that UPI can only return patient data for a Victorian public health service’s own patient data.

Victorian public health services that have not yet been onboarded to UPI may choose first to implement the VHIMS CS, and then seek this functionality at a later stage when UPI onboarding has occurred.

For more information on the UPI program, click here.

Any VHIMS CS enhancements that are undertaken in the future will be automatically rolled out to all Victorian public health services that use the VHIMS CS (Option 1).

For more information on VHIMS CS:

For Victorian public health services that would like more information, or to view or test the VHIMS CS platform, please email [email protected]. If you would like to find out more about the experiences of Victorian public health services that have been using the VHIMS CS for the past year, a list of suggested health service contacts is also available.

What services are covered under the VHIMS CS (Option 1)?

For Victorian public health services that select option 1, the supplier that has been appointed to support the implementation of the VHIMS CS will ensure:

1. The Victorian public health services choosing this option are able to use the VHIMS CS by 01 July 2021 to meet their VHIMS MDS reporting requirements.
2. The Victorian public health service and their staff have been successfully on-boarded to VHIMS CS.
3. The Victorian public health service’s trainers as nominated by the Victorian public health service, are trained in the use of VHIMS CS.
4. There is a smooth and well managed transition from the existing Victorian public health service platform to the VHIMS CS.
5. The Victorian public health service’s staff are aware of required ongoing support arrangements.
6. The Victorian public health service is no longer recording incidents and feedback in their legacy incident and feedback management application, noting health services will need to request the legacy system to be locked down to ‘read only’.

Please note: the data in a Victorian public health service’s legacy VHIMS system will need to be maintained for any data requests. Victorian public health services are responsible for maintaining this data.

Which supplier has been appointed to provide these services?

VAHI is pleased to advise that KPMG has been appointed to provide services for the implementation of the VHIMS Central Solution (Option 1). KPMG onboarded and trained the first phase of the rollout out of VHIMS CS to 39 mostly smaller Victorian public health services; they know the process and the system well; and will be well-placed to anticipate your needs and find solutions. For each Victorian public health service that selects Option 1, KPMG has been appointed to:

1. Plan and manage the on-boarding and training engagement. Key Project Management deliverables for the supplier are:
   • The Project plan.
   • Risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies registers.
2. Provide all on-boarding services and deliverables, including:
   • Guided validation of organisation, custom notification and staff on-boarding data.
   • Output, from the validation tool provided by the Department, for the organisation, custom notification and staff on-boarding data.
   • Onboarding closure document.
3. Provide all training services and deliverables, including:
   • Communication to negotiate training needs, timing and methods timing.
   • Training materials (updates as required).
   • Training closure document.

What are the costs of the VHIMS CS (Option 1)?

The costs for software development of the VHIMS CS have been paid by VAHI. However, Victorian public health services that choose this option will be responsible for meeting their on-boarding and training costs. KPMG has been appointed to provide these services. These costs have a maximum fixed price according to the size of the health service. In summary, maximum fixed cost estimates have been determined for:

• Onboarding: according to whether a Victorian public health service is a small, medium or large organisation (determined by bed-size)
• Training: 10 hours of training (train the trainer) is included. Location and method of training will be negotiated by the supplier and the health service.

The costs for registered community health services are commensurate with the small health service price.

Victorian public health services will incur additional costs if they would like additional training, or they’re located outside of metropolitan areas and require face-to-face training. Extra training sessions can be purchased in increments of 10-hour blocks and additional training services (such as a training needs analysis) can be negotiated with the supplier (this will be costed according to the supplier’s rate card).

Victorian public health services will also be responsible for the costs of their data storage arrangements for their legacy VHIMS records. Records are required to be kept for specific periods of time depending on the features of the incident involved.

Ongoing support arrangements will be managed by the Department in accordance with the specifications outlined in the VHIMS CS Service Level Agreement (SLA). This support will be funded by the Department for the first year. Ongoing support costs will be reviewed and Victorian public health services may be required to contribute.

Process for engaging the supplier for onboarding to VHIMS CS (Option 1)

Victorian public health services that wish to join VHIMS CS should:

• Organise for their nominated delegate to contact KPMG via email to [email protected] to discuss the option and clarify any questions, including what preparatory actions need to be undertaken and likely timing.
• Sign an individual Purchase Order with KPMG for the provision of services to implement the VHIMS CS (Option 1).
• Sign an e-Business form – to access a copy of the e-business form, email the eBusiness Administrator via [email protected]
• Advise VAHI at [email protected] that they wish to implement this option and advise on the timing of their implementation agreed with KPMG.

Please note that:

• KPMG has entered into a State Purchase Contract with the Department that allows them to offer these services. If a Victorian Public Health Service wishes to obtain a copy of this contract, please email [email protected]
• the Department and VAHI will not be involved in Victorian public health services’ engagement with KPMG.  However, the Department will continue to manage the State Purchase Contract it has with KPMG, and as such will be an escalation point for Victorian public health services during KPMG’s engagement, and any execution of Purchase Orders.

Timing

All Victorian public health services are required to have their preferred incident and feedback management systems in place by 1 July 2021 in order to submit the new VHIMS MDS.

Where to go for further information?

If a Victorian public health service has any general queries about information on the VHIMS Statewide tender, please contact VAHI on [email protected].

If a Victorian public health service wishes to obtain further information relating to the proposed process for implementing the VHIMS CS (Option 1) and associated costs, please email Michael Claughton at KPMG via email [email protected].

If a Victorian public health service would like to obtain a copy, or has any questions relating to the State Purchase Contract or its Purchase Order, please email [email protected].