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The first District Health Centre (DHC) at Kwai Tsing came into operation in September 2019, marking a step forward of the Government’s commitment to enhancing district-based primary healthcare services. The DHC scheme aims to provide integrated primary healthcare to the public through a network of healthcare professionals (HCProfs) in the localities, under which participants’ essential electronic health records (eHRs) are shared amongst HCProfs making use of the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS). |
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| Operating through district-based medical-social collaboration and public-private partnership (PPP), DHC is a brand new operation mode in providing one-stop primary healthcare services to the public ranging from health promotion, health assessment, chronic disease management to community rehabilitation. |
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| Under the scheme, DHC serves as a hub comprising a Core Centre as the headquarters in the district, supplemented by Satellite Centres in different parts of the district, as well as multi-disciplinary HCProfs in the private sector such as doctors, Chinese medicine practitioners, dietitians, occupational therapists etc. to provide multiple access and service points for the public. Through the networking approach, it seeks to provide primary healthcare services that cater for the needs and characteristics of individual districts, and enhance public awareness of disease prevention and their ability in self-management of health. |
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eHRSS: a Key Role to Play in DHCs
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| The effective and smooth operation of the DHC network requires the close linkage and flow of service and client data amongst HCProfs, as underpinned by the eHRSS infrastructure. As in other PPP initiatives, the DHC scheme utilises eHRSS as the information exchange platform to facilitate the delivery of services to its users. Specifically how does eHRSS support the operation of DHCs? |
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Enhancing communication among HCProfs: Each DHC runs a number of primary healthcare programmes which involve a mix of doctors, allied HCProfs and other workers from the health as well as welfare sectors. Relevant health data of a patient contributed by different HCProfs can be easily linked and communicated through eHRSS to support the provision of more holistic healthcare to the patient. For example, a participating doctor of the Diabetic Mellitus Screening and Management Programme under the DHC programme can make reference to a patient’s diabetic retinopathy assessment results conducted and shared in eHRSS by an optometrist in prescribing a treatment and care plan that best suits the patient. |
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Enabling convenient access to health data by public and private HCPs: eHRSS offers authorised HCProfs ready and secure access to patients’ eHRs. In this way, patients’ health conditions can be better assessed and followed up by HCProfs, especially for those who have just been discharged from the hospital. For example, the clinical notes of a patient after hospitalisation shared in eHRSS can be viewed by the HCProfs working in DHCs who are responsible for providing rehabilitation services to the patient. This certainly enhances the delivery of continuous healthcare services and coordination among various medical and social service providers in the community. |
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Facilitating efficient operations of DHCs: The DHC Information Technology System is modelled on eHRSS’ Clinical Management System On-ramp with customised functions that provide support to the efficient operation of DHCs, for instance, client registration, eHRSS enrolment, eligibility and medical fee waiver status checking, programme enrolment, service referral and clinical documentation. |
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| It is envisaged that with the progressive roll-out of DHCs, eHRSS would continue to extend its footprint in the community and bring greater synergy to the healthcare services in Hong Kong. For more details about DHC, please visit www.dhc.gov.hk/en/index.html. |
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