Media Release: Almost a third of all Divisions of General Practice promoting Argus connection

Almost one third of all Divisions of General Practice have now committed to promoting the use of Argus secure clinical messaging for exchanging clinical information between GPs, specialists, allied health providers, hospitals and other healthcare organisations in their regions.

CEO of ArgusConnect Mr Ross Davey said that with 36 Divisions now committed, this represents a large and growing base of Divisions bringing benefits to their GP membership, specialists and other healthcare workers through assisting improved efficiency in secure and private exchange of patient clinical information.

"The new Argus Affinity promotion is the latest Argus initiative aimed at working with GP Divisions to provide GPs and specialists with a special 3-month window of opportunity of not only obtaining the Argus program free but having it installed for no cost," said Mr Davey.

"Divisions simply need to notify ArgusConnect that they will commit to promoting and encouraging GPs, specialists and allied health people to adopt and use Argus in order for their GP members to receive Argus Affinity benefits," he said.

The Argus Affinity promotion runs over August, September and October this year.

Mr Davey said that Divisions vary greatly in their capacity to support their members and other providers in taking up secure electronic messaging facilities, however in cases where their resources are stretched ArgusConnect seeks to assist in any way it can. "Argus Affinity is one example of such assistance," he said. Argus was developed in Australia and is a not-for-profit initiative that has been continuing for over 5 years aimed at assisting communication and better patient care with all sectors of healthcare in Australia.

The computer-based mechanism allows GPs, specialists and allied health workers to exchange clinical information about their patients in a totally secure and private manner, protected by defence-level encryption security. This facility is available to Australian GPs and specialists at no charge for the software or the technical Help Desk support. Allied health providers are asked to pay a small annual support fee, and larger healthcare organisations are able to pay a single one-off cost for the service and then a scaled annual fee for technical support.

Since August last year, ArgusConnect has worked closely with a growing number of GP Divisions who have chosen Argus as their preferred means of secure messaging. These Divisions have enjoyed assistance from ArgusConnect in coordinating their efforts to engage with their GPs and related specialists and allied health providers, plus they have received special concessions in the costs of installing Argus.

Argus is currently central to a number of major healthcare initiatives around Australia including being chosen by NT Health and the NT Divisions as the communication mechanism for healthcare providers throughout the Northern Territory. This includes metropolitan Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs; many remote aboriginal communities will also benefit.

Argus is also being rolled out to all providers in southern rural Queensland across an area of more than 430,000 square kilometres. A majority of metropolitan Divisions in Adelaide and Melbourne, northern coast NSW, and Ballarat, Bendigo and Warnambool also use Argus.

For more information, contact Mr Ross Davey, CEO, ArgusConnect,
email: ross.d@argusconnect.com.au, phone: (03) 5335 2220.