Implementing My Health Record in your healthcare organisation
Find out how to register for My Health Record, register for Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service, establish policies and identify key roles.
This page provides information for healthcare providers and organisations wanting to register for the My Health Record system, along with key points to consider before and after registration.
Follow the guidance in each section below. Parts of the process are owned by Services Australia and link to guidance on their website.
Preparing for My Health Record registration
Understanding healthcare identifiers and the Healthcare Identifiers Service
To be eligible to register to participate in digital health, including My Health Record, electronic prescribing or secure messaging, your organisation will need to register for a Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation (HPI-O) from the Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service).
Use of healthcare identifiers is governed by the Healthcare Identifiers Act. The HI Act requires an organisation to take reasonable steps to protect healthcare identifiers from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Find out more about obligations for public health service providers.
Register your organisation for an HPI-O and with the My Health Record system
The responsible officer (RO) of your organisation will need to register the organisation with the HI Service to get an HPI-O.
Register for a PRODA account
Register for a PRODA account
Provider Digital Access (PRODA) is an online authentication system for healthcare organisations to securely access government online services, such as Health Professional Online Services (HPOS).
Your organisation will need to identify who will be acting in the role of a responsible officer (RO). This person will be responsible for the practice and may be the owner or manager of the organisation. The RO will have primary responsibility for the practice's compliance with participation requirements, ensuring that the practice and its employees comply with the relevant legislation, policies and regulations.
This individual will need to register for a PRODA account if they don't already have one.
Helpful registration tips:
- Ensure the name you register the account with has the same name as all your documents, or a Change of Name certificate is provided as supporting documentation.
- Confirm the gender on the account matches the documents.
- Confirm the DOB is entered correctly
- The email address used to register the Individual PRODA account should not be a publicly accessible email address such as an admin account.
Link to Health Professional Online Service (HPOS)
Link to Health Professional Online Service (HPOS)
When you first log in to PRODA, you will need to link to HPOS. Visit the Services Australia website to discover the steps to link HPOS to your PRODA account. You will then be able to access a range of eligible services using your PRODA log in.
Register a seed organisation with the Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service)
Register a seed organisation with the Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service)
Once the RO has registered for PRODA and linked HPOS to their account, they can register the organisation with the HI Service. This national service uniquely identifies healthcare organisations, healthcare provider individuals and individual healthcare recipients.
Once registered with the HI Service, your organisation is issued with a unique HPI-O number. This number is used to identify the organisation in a range of national digital health initiatives.
When you register the organisation to use the HI Service, you’ll need to include your healthcare organisation type.
From the HPOS ‘My programs’ page:
- Select the My Health Record and Healthcare Identifiers tile
- Select Healthcare Identifiers - Register seed organisation
- Complete the online form to register your seed organisation
- For more information, visit the Services Australia website.
Registering a seed organisation with the HI Service also registers the organisation for My Health Record.
Register any networked organisations
Register any networked organisations
Step 1: Register your network organisation in HPOS
A Responsible Officer (RO) or an Organisation Maintenance Officer (OMO) of a seed organisation, will firstly need to register a network organisation with the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service by linking it to either an existing seed organisation or another network organisation as per the steps below:
- Log in to PRODA and access Health Professional Online Services (HPOS).
- Select My programs then Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record.
- Select Healthcare Identifiers – Manage existing records.
- Select which seed or network organisation you want to link the new network organisation to.
- Select the My Organisation details, and then Add organisation.
- Follow the steps to create your new network organisation.
Once a request has been processed, an outcome message will be sent to the RO or OMO’s HPOS Inbox. This will include the new network organisation's Healthcare Provider Identifier – Organisation (HPI-O). Once an HPI-O has been issued, the network organisation can be registered to access My Health Record (see below).
Step 2: Register your network organisation to access My Health Record
To register the network organisation in My Health Record, you will firstly need to set access flags. Access flags allow healthcare provider organisations to be identifiable to healthcare recipients in their My Health Record access history and gives different parts of a large organisation different access to the My Health Record system.
- A 'Yes' access flag allows the network organisation to be identifiable by their own registered name when accessing My Health Record. This means a healthcare recipient will be able to know which part of a large organisation has accessed their My Health Record and would be able to restrict access to their record if needed. For example, a large pharmacy group will have a registered seed organisation and, in addition, can register and set access flags for each individual store or location as a different network organisation to allow their customers to know which store accessed their My Health Record on a particular day.
- A 'No' access flag means that the network organisation will be identified as the seed organisation it is registered under and will not be identified as a different entity to a healthcare recipient in their My Health Record access history.
The seed organisation's RO or OMO can register network organisations with My Health Record and set appropriate access flags by completing the following steps:
- Log in to PRODA and access HPOS.
- Select My programs then Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record.
- Select My Health Record - Register Organisation then Healthcare Organisation Registration.
- Select an organisation from the list.
- Select which organisation is to be registered and select appropriate access flags, then Save Changes.
- Review the terms and accept the Participation Agreement, then select Register.
A network organisation will now be registered with the My Health Record system. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 if additional networks need to be registered as part of your organisation’s structure.
Obtain HPI-Is for all clinical staff who will be using My Health Record
All healthcare providers within your organisation will need to be uniquely identified using an HPI-I to access My Health Record. All Ahpra registered healthcare providers will already have an HPI-I.
Ahpra registered healthcare providers
Ahpra registered healthcare providers
Accessing your healthcare identifier
The following options can assist you in obtaining your HPI-I:
- Option 1: You would have received your HPI-I in correspondence sent to you from Ahpra. If you no longer have your HPI-I, you can get it from the Ahpra website using your login account, or call Ahpra on 1300 419 495 Monday to Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm (AEDT). If you know your Ahpra User ID, simply add 800361 to the front of ID to get your HPI-I.
- Option 2: Call the HI Service enquiry line on 1300 361 457 Monday to Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm (AEDT) and request your HPI-I.
Non-Ahpra registered healthcare providers
Non-Ahpra registered healthcare providers
If you are in a field of practice not covered by Ahpra, you can register for an HPI-I if you are credentialed by an eligible professional body.
Find out more Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service for individual health care providers - Health professionals - Services Australia.
Setting up access to My Health Record
In most healthcare settings, access to the My Health Record system is via conformant clinical software, the National Provider Portal, or hospital applications.
Option 1: accessing via conformant software
Option 1: accessing via conformant software
Many common clinical information systems (CISs) conform to My Health Record and can connect directly to the system. This means that healthcare providers are generally able to access, view and upload information to a patient's record through their conformant CIS.
Click here to check whether your clinical software conforms to the standard.
To access My Health Record using conformant clinical software, your organisation needs either a National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) certificate or a Contracted Service Provider (CSP) number for linking.
Check with your software vendor whether you need to have a NASH PKI Certificate or whether they will be interacting with the system as a Contracted Service Provider (CSP).
Use a NASH PKI certificate:
Request and download a NASH PKI certificate
Request and download a NASH PKI certificate
The National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) is used by healthcare organisations to securely access and share health information. A NASH Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate is required for access to the HI Service.
This certificate can be requested, linked and downloaded through HPOS by your organisation maintenance officer (OMO) or the responsible officer (RO).
Request and link NASH certificates
The RO or OMO needs to log on to your organisation's PRODA account, then select:
- Go to service on the HPOS tile
- My programs
- Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record
- Healthcare Identifiers - Manage existing records
- My organisation details
- the Certificates tab.
When selecting the required organisation record, you may need to navigate to the correct record. Read more about Healthcare Identifiers Service for health professionals.
To request a NASH certificate:
- Select Request a NASH PKI site certificate
- Enter a mobile number
- Tick the check box to confirm you have read and understood the terms and conditions
- Save changes and submit.
When your certificate is ready for downloading, your Personal Identification Code (PIC) will be sent in a text message. You need the code to activate the certificate.
For more information on NASH certificates please visit the NASH page.
or link a CSP number:
Link the software vendor's CSP number in HPOS
Link the software vendor's CSP number in HPOS
If your organisation uses software that connects to My Health Record, and the software vendor is a contracted servicer provider (CSP), you need to link the CSP in HPOS in order to connect to My Health Record.
What is a contracted CSP organisation?
A CSP organisation provides IT systems, health information management services or communication of health information on behalf of a healthcare provider organisation for HI Service or My Health Record purposes.
Check with your software vendor to confirm that they are a CSP, and get their 16-digital CSP number before completing the linking process.
Follow the steps in this guide for Contracted Service Provider Linking in HPOS (PDF, 311.37 KB).
Configure software
Once you have completed either the NASH or CSP linking process, contact your software provider to access support to appropriately configure your healthcare identifiers and certificates.
Option 2: accessing via the National Provider Portal (NPP)
Option 2: accessing via the National Provider Portal (NPP)
Healthcare providers who do not have conformant clinical software, can access an individual’s record through the National Provider Portal (NPP). The NPP is a web-based, read-only site that lets healthcare providers view the information in a patient's record. Uploading documents is not supported.
To use the NPP, healthcare providers will need a Healthcare Provider Identifier – Individual (HPI-I) and to get set up first. Your organisation will need a Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation (HPI-O) and be registered to participate in My Health Record.
Set up access by linking the HPI-I to the organisation's HPI-O
Set up access by linking the HPI-I to the organisation's HPI-O
For a healthcare provider representing a healthcare organisation to access the NPP, the responsible officer (RO) or organisation maintenance officer (OMO) must link the healthcare provider's HPI-I to the organisation's HPI-O. This can be done by completing the below 2 steps via HPOS:
Step 1: Link individual healthcare providers and manage their access. Visit Services Australia’s website for detailed steps.
Step 2: Manage links for individual healthcare providers in My Health Record. Visit Services Australia’s website for detailed steps.
These steps must be completed for all healthcare providers within the organisation who require access to My Health Record via the NPP.
If you require assistance please contact the My Health Record help line on 1800 723 471, and select option 2.
Once successful linking has occurred, healthcare providers representing the organisation can access the NPP.
If your organisation is not yet registered in the HI Service and My Health Record, see above.
Accessing and using the National Provider Portal (NPP)
Accessing and using the National Provider Portal (NPP)
- Step 1: Log onto the NPP. Go to https://provider.ehealth.gov.au/login.html to access the portal.
- Step 2: Click on the 'Login' button
You will be redirected to the PRODA login page. Enter your username and password. - Step 3: Link your PRODA ID to the My Health Record system by entering your Identifier Number
You will only need to complete the linking once. - Step 4: Select the organisation you are representing
If you work for multiple healthcare provider organisations, please select the organisation you are representing in relation to your specific patient’s care. - Step 5: Search for the individual's record
Once you log in, a search screen will appear. Add your patient’s information to the search screen to find their My Health Record. The information you enter must match their details recorded with Medicare.
You must enter their: Last name, Date of birth, Sex, Identifier (IHI, Medicare or DVA number).
Log in to the National Provider Portal here:
Removing a healthcare provider
If a healthcare provider leaves your organisation, their account has been compromised, or whose duties no longer require them to access the My Health Record system, they will need to have their access to the NPP to be removed. This can be done via HPOS by completing the below steps:
- Navigate to ‘My Programs’
- Click ‘Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record’
- Click ‘Healthcare Identifiers - Manage existing records’
- Click ‘My organisation details’
- Locate the provider by selecting the ‘HPI-I Links’ tab, click ‘Remove’ next to the chosen provider and follow the prompts to confirm.
- Return to ‘My programs’.
- Click ‘Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record’.
- Click ‘My Health Record - Register organisation’.
- Click ‘Manage authorisation links’.
- Select ‘Add/Update Links’ next to the organisation you want to update the authorisation links for.
- Locate the provider under ‘Linked Providers’ heading, select “Deactivate Link” and follow the prompts to confirm.
For more information, please visit Services Australia’s website.
Option 3: accessing via hospital applications
Option 3: accessing via hospital applications
Most hospitals across Australia are already connected to the system. This means that authorised employees are generally able to access and view information in a patient’s My Health Record through the hospital's applications.
If you are working in a hospital or other healthcare setting, check with the health information manager or the local intranet for information on how to access My Health Record in your organisation’s applications.
Remember to check your organisation's access and use policy.
Hospitals that want to connect to My Health Record are encouraged to contact the Agency via our Help Desk.
HIPS mobile
HIPS mobile
HIPS mobile provides authorised employees with seamless access to their patients’ healthcare information and services, when and where they need it. It is available as an add on to existing HIPS software enabling the viewing of records on mobile devices, including mobile and tablets.
Benefits
Mobile access to HIPS allows for viewing of records on mobile and tablet where and when it is needed. This means:
- Critical information is on hand and available to all clinicians while performing ward rounds, bedside consultations and remote care.
- For emergency departments, this can mean saving time, when patient history needs to be accessed in an emergency - including medicines, pathology and immunisations.
- Improved management of patient information for clinicians, who can now create specific ‘My Patient’ lists for each of the clinician’s work locations, and access records on and off site via the hospital’s VPN. This list syncs with the HIPS UI standalone view.