iHealth Care Directory: A directory of health providers in Queensland

The iHealth Care Directory (the Directory) is a listing of where GPs work in Queensland and how they can most effectively be contacted. The Directory will also include specialists and allied health professionals contact details. This will ultimately make the Directory a central and authoritative source of health providers’ contact details to enable secure communication of patient information across Queensland.

The Directory’s primary purpose is to transfer clinical patient information e.g. discharge summaries and specialist referrals from one health provider to another.

The Directory also makes it possible to rapidly communicate public health alerts (e.g. outbreaks of communicable diseases, food poisoning etc) to health providers throughout Queensland.

Since allied health professionals are increasingly called upon for team care arrangements with General Practice, the ability to share patient information for referrals, expert opinion or following courses of care is essential, so allied health professionals will also be included on the Directory.

Any health related organisation or private practitioner delivering patient care who has a need to communicate with GPs, specialists or allied health professionals about their patients will have access to the Directory.

The Directory will provide a single trusted source of health care professionals contact details working in private practice in Queensland. This will facilitate improved communication between Queensland’s public hospitals, private hospitals and other doctors. This will ensure information is transferred to the correct health provider, using the preferred mode of communication and in rapid time so as not to cause unnecessary delays in patient care. All health professionals listed on the Directory are provided free access for the purpose of communicating patient information and to update their details online.

• One directory for healthcare providers for referrals and secure communications. It will include providers’ Medicare status and service provision details e.g. specialisations;
• The Directory is available via the web free of charge to all providers who consent to be listed on the Directory; Enables more appropriate referrals from GPs;
• Facilitates more timely and accurate distribution of patients’ clinical information to doctors and allied health professionals e.g. Online Care Planning and Discharge Summaries;
• The Directory will save you time. Providers will only need to update their contact details once whenever they relocate to notify other health care providers;
• Enables public health alerts to reach all doctors efficiently.

All health professionals will need to opt in by completing Part A of the iHealth Care Consent Form. For copies of the Consent Form go to www.ihcdirectory.com.au. A health professional can withdraw his/her consent at any time by contacting 1800 620 046.

No. iHealth Care is subsiding all costs associated with this service.

Logon to www.ihcdirectory.com.au and update your details online. This supplies the updated information to every other user of the Directory.

Alternatively if you have consented to list on the Directory your local Division, can also update your details on your behalf when you notify them of changes. Any updates received from secondary sources (i.e. other than the health professionals themselves) will be verified by the iHealth Care Office, through a phone call directly to the health professionals.

Electronic versions of the Directory are accessible to participating subscribers only. Access to the Directory is password protected and encrypted, preventing general public access. The use of the Directory by any person or organisation outside the terms of their agreement may result in termination of access to the Directory.

When the iHealth Care Directory sends your contact details to other Directory users, the privacy of those details is protected by encryption at the same high degree of security as used by financial institutions. Please note that the Internet is a public medium and that General Practice Queensland cannot guarantee that encrypted information being sent via the Internet cannot be intercepted.

The iHealth Care Directory is stored on a secure hosted server within a professional ISP environment. This information can be reviewed or edited by you at any time, as stated in the How do I update my details? section of this information sheet. A Disaster Recovery Server is also located in a secure hosted location in Brisbane.

The iHealth Care Directory is an initiative of General Practice Queensland on behalf on the Queensland Divisions Network. The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing have sponsored the iHealth Care Directory. The Directory is supported by the Divisions of General Practice in Queensland.

For further information about the iHealth Care Directory, contact 1800 620 046.

For the full iHealth Care Directory terms and conditions please go to www.ihcdirectory.com.au

Please note - The information on this webpage is the most up-to-date information about the iHealth Care project and supersedes any information contained in printed information sheets relating to the iHealth Care project.

For more information about the iHealth Care Secure Messaging Service please click here.