A review of ACT Health's data failures has found staff were not fully aware of the impacts of poor data or told about the benefits of quality data.
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The system-wide data review was ordered by Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris in February 2017 after the department failed to provide figures on its emergency department to the Productivity Commission due to concerns over accuracy.
It came after six previous external reviews and two auditor general reports on ACT health's data since 2012, culminating in 175 recommendations.
The current review showed only 69 of those recommendations have been completed.
The report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday - about five months late - and made nine core recommendations.
Ms Fitzharris said the government was committed to implementing all recommendations of the current report - including to build a new data repository - with the rollout to begin this year, but the full cost not yet known.
Among the other key recommendations was to routinely review data quality, create user friendly documents, maintain security and privacy through staff training and deliver timely information.
The review painted a picture of a chaotic data system with 250 different systems in place that hold patient information across ACT Health.
It found governance of data was confused, with no single area responsible for the 1200 requests for data each year.
Data definitions were found to not be consistent or aligned with national standards.
It found some staff were not aware of the impact of poor or inaccurate data entry. They were also not fully aware of the benefits of having high quality data and staff were not supported to meet their data training responsibilities.
The report noted the public did not have access to timely data and there were gaps around privacy of data.
Ms Fitzharris said previous reviews' recommendations had become confused over time.
She said she was committed to making the data useful and meaningful for consumers in real time, such as by having current emergency department wait times online.
“As Minister for Health and Wellbeing I called this review because data reporting and management is integral to running an informed hospital and health care system that is accountable, transparent and responsive," Ms Fitzharris said.
“This final report outlines nine key recommendations, the independent root cause analysis findings and a roadmap of key future activities.
“The review has given ACT Health a granular examination of what is needed to address the shortfalls in data reporting and collection and a clear path ahead to become the jurisdiction to watch when it comes to best practice data management."
Opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne welcomed the review, but said many of the recommendations should be "business as usual".
She said the government was only now recognising good data was vital to patient care.
"We had two auditor general's report, we had six independent consultant reviews of data, we had 170 odd recommendations, many of them were not implemented," Mrs Dunne said.
"To say this is all wonderful now, it defies years and years of past practice.
"I hope that we have a turnaround, I hope that we end up with good reliable data because it is absolutely vital to planning and delivering of services to Canberra.
"I hope that this is the review that brings us the results we need."
