The Digital Health Transformation program 2022 - 2032

A comprehensive budget was put together as part of the government budget submission for the Digital Health Transformation Program. However, at a high level, we can essentially split the $150 million across foundations, capability and resourcing.

Our commitment to upgrading digital infrastructure is already underway, with a $15 million investment last year to upgrade our infrastructure in the Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston General Hospitals, almost complete.  

Our focus will then move to the North-West and District Hospitals.  

No. The RFP will specifically focus on the Digital Health Strategy. Vendors can maintain visibility of other opportunities at Tasmanian Government Tenders. 
 

The Request for Proposal and associated Request for Tender will outline our requirements in an outcomes-based format, which we will be developing our evaluation criteria against. The Request for Proposal will utilise a moderate level of detail to provide an understanding of the intended procurement scope for the Request for Tender.  The response to the Request for Proposal will be utilised to refine the requirements to a greater level of detail for the Request for Tender due in June 2023. Given the moderate level of detail for the Request for Proposal requirements, vendors may identify potential ‘gaps’ that they can support with services or products.  Vendors may choose to show how they can support identified gaps, however, the evaluation will be specifically measured against the requirements documented in the respective Request for Proposal and Request for Tender.

The Request for Proposal will focus on outcomes-based measures as much as possible. For this reason, we will be looking to vendors to recommend solutions that meet business requirements, which include reliable, continuous access, data privacy and security protocols. Whether this is best achieved through on-premises or off-premises will be at the vendor’s discretion. 

As discussed in the July briefing sessions, we remain open to either or a mixture of both options. 

We are actively working on this now and taking a couple of approaches to inform us.

The first approach is to understand other states and jurisdictions’ requirements and whether they are relevant in the Tasmanian context.

The second approach is to build a Capability Model for the Tasmanian environment. This information will be available as part of the Request for Proposal Vendor Information Pack. 

This is a very important procurement for us and we greatly appreciate the interest from vendors.  We are committed to upholding the State Government’s procurement processes and providing the same information to all potential vendors. 

For this reason, we will communicate to vendors through Industry Briefing sessions, provide responses to industry questions via Frequently Asked Questions and communicate through group emails. 

We will not be meeting with individuals or organisations on a one-to-one basis

We are still finalising the scope of the Tranche 1 Procurement. However, we recommend that vendors become familiar with the objectives of the Digital Health Strategy Horizon 1 and 2 objectives and consider these in preparation for the Tranche 1 Procurement process.

Stage 1 Request for Proposal will likely be released to the market in January 2023. Both the ePCR and the EMR will be in scope.

We recognise the importance of Private Hospitals and, from a systems perspective, the intention is to have interoperability via a Health Information Exchange and other technologies. 

No. This is a large procurement process and not best suited to the TTCC in its current form. We are currently working with Crown Law to develop a bespoke Framework for this procurement and will provide more information as soon as that’s available.

Yes. It will be available as part of the Request for Procurement.

We have dedicated resources assigned to our program, acting on behalf of Crown Law to develop this contract.

We expect to receive several responses to the proposed procurement. Some will be from single suppliers while others may be from a Consortium/s. Once we have received the Request for Proposal responses, we will be in a better position to assess potential conflicts of interest and put together appropriate risk mitigation. 

Yes. The Request for Proposal (RFP) pack will include several supporting documents, including the Industry Participation Plan. There will also be around four to five questions that vendors will be asked to respond to as part of their RFP response.

A Vendor Pack will be available as part of the Request for Proposal process. This will include information on a Tasmania-specific Capability Model and possibly more information on our Targeted Operating Model. Further information will also be captured in the Requirements documents. 

We expect that a detailed briefing session will be required as part of the Request for Proposal because we want to ensure there is a clear and shared understanding of what will be required. 

The date for that session is still being resolved but may well be in the early stages of the Request for Proposal period. 

The Program has been informed by a wide-ranging consultation process across primary, community, subacute and acute care settings and seeks to address the healthcare challenges identified in the Our Healthcare Future paper, published in November 2020.

Absolutely. We have, and will continue to, collaborate with health departments and relevant stakeholders in other states and territories to learn from their experiences and to share our learnings.

How will digital health standards and guidelines form part of the approach?

We will harness both local and national digital health standards as part of our Program approach. Industry should familiarise themselves with standards already available through the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and work underway via the Australian Digital Health Agency.

The program team is also scoping the required local digital health standards and guidelines as part of its Horizon 1 and 2 activities. These will form part of the procurement pack released to market in 2022-23. 

We have a lot of knowledge about our current ICT service offering. We are building an understanding of our digital health capability and mapping that capability against the current state and available systems. This information will be used to develop the Targeted Operating Model (TOM).

All systems will be reviewed as part of the current state discovery. Not all systems will be replaced. Our tender process will outline the capabilities we are planning to deliver. 

We expect responses to tenders will articulate the technology solutions to best meet the capabilities we identify

We believe it is important to develop a standard and shared language around healthcare terminology and work is underway to achieve this. 

Industry should familiarise themselves with terminologies and classifications already available such as SNOMED CT-AU, Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT), ICD, etc., and services such as the National Terminology Service via the Australian Digital Health Agency.

Yes. The Patient Administration System (PAS)

PAS will be reviewed under this program of work to understand if it is the best system to meet existing and anticipated future clinical needs, noting many Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solutions will include PAS-like capabilities.

No. Digital technologies in every industry change so quickly that it’s impossible to put together a fit-for-purpose plan for ten years’ time. Instead, we have developed four focus areas and eight key principles, which will guide our work over the next ten years. The specific model of care will evolve to meet clinical and patient expectations. 

The Program includes four focus areas, consistent with the Our Healthcare Future principles and strategic ambitions. A great example is the fourth area: 'Foster statewide clinical collaboration’ will span regions, settings, and disciplines to provide a longitudinal patient-centred view, including real-time, secure communication and the exchange of information between primary, community, acute, sub-acute, and aged care settings.

The Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is an international not-for-profit organisation that promotes the best use of IT and management systems in the healthcare industry. HIMSS has developed standards of technical interoperability, which balances the need to exchange and share information across technologies with the need to protect data and patient privacy. 

Data collection and integration in healthcare settings are talked about in two different ways. The first is about collecting and analysing data at the organisational level to determine how the health system is operating. The second is about diagnostic data that helps healthcare providers to make better, more informed decisions about patient care. Diagnostic data integration, focussing on patient care and treatment is definitely in the scope of this program but we are some way from understanding exactly what that looks like. We are committed to working in collaboration with stakeholders to understand their needs around data integration and analysis.

The HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) measures clinical outcomes, patient engagement, and clinician use of EMR technology to strengthen organisational performance and health outcomes across patient populations. 

The internationally applicable EMRAM incorporates methodology and algorithms to score a whole hospital, including inpatient, outpatient, and day case services provided on the hospital campus. EMRAM scores hospitals around the world relative to their digital maturity, providing a detailed road map to ease adoption and begin a digital transformation journey towards aspirational outcomes. 

At this stage, we do not intend to incorporate EMRAM into the benefits realisation approach for this Program. This may be reassessed in the future. 

We are committed to delivering digital technologies to deliver better patient outcomes. Cloud-based and locally hosted options will be considered to achieve this program of work. 

We are committed to improving the visibility of patient diagnostic data to healthcare providers who need that information. Exactly what this looks like, is not yet known.

This will comply with our existing Tasmanian nine-digit Tasmanian Health Client identifier (THCi) that is utilised across the Department of Health to uniquely identify our health consumers/patients.

The Program will utilise a mix of employed and contracted skillsets. Industry will need to consider their resourcing proposals as part of their procurement response; models which address known workforce risks associated with ICT and Digital Health investment are encouraged. 

We are committed to safe information sharing while protecting patient data in keeping with the information and privacy rights detailed in the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights. We will be guided by and adhere to relevant legislation including the Personal Information Protection Act.

Legacy systems will be decommissioned over time/ where necessary without loss of relevant data which will be retained for use in new digital health solution(s).

The Program is a large and complex program of work spanning the next ten years. Each initiative will need to consider the current environment, the stakeholders impacted, the desired change, and the timeframes to achieve this. We are committed to working with stakeholders to ensure changes are well-planned and executed in consultation with those impacted by the changes. 

The Department of Treasury and Finance website contains a wealth of material to assist suppliers in understanding how to do business with the State Government. 

‘Winning Government Business' is a key resource that suppliers should familiarise themselves with.

The Program may choose to utilise the Request for Information process to gather insights from the industry to better inform our Request for Tender approach. It is not guaranteed that a Request for Information will be released. Any such requests will be submitted via the Tasmanian Government Tenders website.

There will likely be several significant procurements within this program. The timeframes for vendor selection will be variable based on the complexity and risk profile of each discreet procurement activity. 

Each procurement will follow the Tasmanian Government procurement policy and procedures. 

For more information on Tasmanian Government procurement, visit Buying for Government.

The State Government has a well-established ‘Buy Local Policy’ with the objective being to ensure that expenditure by Government agencies on goods and services provides a corresponding benefit to the Tasmania community. 

More generally, as a Tasmanian State government agency, we are required to comply with a range of procurement policies and procedures set down by the Department of Treasury and Finance; these are collectively known as Treasurer’s Instructions.

These Treasurer’s Instructions provide guidance to agencies on how they are to conduct procurement activities; these can be found at Buy Local Policy.

We are committed to ensuring that all our procurement activities fully comply with these policies and procedures.