Capturing disability information in the medical records.
Stephanie Coates1, Jocelyn Franciscus11Disability Health Network, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Abstract
In Western Australia (WA), every hospital uses different medical record forms however every patient has a Unique Medical Record Number (UMRN) which is the same across the various public hospital sites for each patient. There has not been a singular form available for use at hospitals to capture key individual information regarding a person’s disability.
The WA Disability Health Network (DHN) has consulted with numerous hospital clinicians, including Emergency Department staff, Social Work and NDIS hospital leads and ward staff, disability service providers (DSP) and people with lived experience to develop a form suitable for the hospital medical records.
The Disability Health Profile (DHP) form has been published in the Hospital Stay Guidelines and is available in an interactive version on the DHN website. It has been circulated widely through DSP with the intention that people will attend hospital with a completed form. The goal is to improve the information exchange across the disability and health sectors.
The next steps involve submitting the form to the Clinical Forms Committees at each of the major hospitals in WA. The form has been trialled at Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospital Group and Rockingham Hospital.
The poster will display the Disability Health Profile form and outline the reasoning for various parts of the single page form. The future use of the DHP form in the medical records will assist with data capture in relation to disability, which will help to rectify a longstanding data gap in WA.
Biography
With lived experience of disability and a background in Occupational Therapy, Jocelyn is a community engagement leader with significant experience working in the disability sector. Previously the Community Awareness Strategist for National Disability Services in WA, Jocelyn built community awareness of NDS’s suite of access and inclusion services.
With over 25 years of experience working in health, Stephanie is the HoD of Occupational Therapy at Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospital Group, Chair of the FSFHG Disability Access and Inclusion Committee and previously served on the Ministerial Advisory Council for Disability.