INTEGRATION PROJECT
General Practitioner Registry
August 1999 (Ammended 9/12/99 - J.Akyalcin)

The General Practitioner Registry (GPR) is an initiative of the Department of Human Services and Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, implemented by General Practice Divisions of Victoria to provide a centralised repository of accurate information about general practitioners and the contact details for the locations where they work. This is in response to a growing demand for accurate GP information for automated notifications and electronic discharge summaries.

The GPR is designed to facilitate continuity of care through faster and more accurate communications between hospitals and GPs.

The key objectives of the project are to provide:

• readily available General practitioner information at minimum cost
• a central repository of state-wide GP information for electronic access and update
• easy access for authorized users through the internet
• accuracy, security and integrity of data
• low on-going administrative costs.

The GPR is designed for use by hospitals to facilitate better patient outcomes. It will not be available for promotional purposes or to commercial organisations.

The project is currently in specification phase; piloting is planned for November 1999 and implementation in early 2000.

Information stored in the GPR

The GPR will include the following information about GPs:

• name
• primary location address
• fax number
• email address
• professional discipline
• alternative work locations.

The GPR will also contain details of other locations where a GP may practice. Each practice and GP will be provided a unique system ID so that records can be linked. Searching by practice or GP is possible.

Information downloaded by users will be provided in common use CSV format for loading into a spreadsheet or the GP and organisation tables in the user's main information system.

Key functions provided by the GPR

Users will be able to:

• subscribe to use the services of the GPR via a web based interface
• electronically download the GPR database in full
• view details of previous download requests
• request only those records updated since the last download
• query and extract data from the GPR based on user specified selection criteria
• with appropriate authorisation, submit requests to change GP or organisation information
• receive confirmation or rejection notices for change requests.

Data integrity and security

Changes to the GPR will only be accepted from GP divisions throughout Victoria, and authorised users.

All data will be validated by GPDV before being committed to the GPR database. The validation process will include contacting the applicable GP to confirm the change.

Only authorised subscribers will be allowed access to the system. Access will be by user ID and password.

The registry will be stored in a secure physical location.

Availability

Planned availability of the system will be 24 hours per day 7 days per week, 365 days per year via the internet.

Subscription service

The GPR has been funded by DH& AC and DHS. Ongoing updates and maintenance costs may shared amongst subscribers at a nominal annual cost.

GPDV will issue new releases of registry data on a regular basis.

Each subscription will allow users to access a "mailbox" for that subscription. The mailbox will display all releases for that subscription, the date of the last download, and the user ID who initiated the download.

Users will be able to track their response to new releases of the system.

Conceptual Overview

The following diagram demonstrates the conceptual overview of the state-wide GPR system.

Table 1. Conceptual Overview Design

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