Implementing My Health Record in your healthcare organisation

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).

The HI Service is a national service for uniquely identifying healthcare providers, healthcare organisations and individuals receiving healthcare. It is the authoritative source of healthcare identifiers in Australia and a foundation component of national digital health products and services.

The three identifiers used in the HI Service are:

• Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) uniquely identifies a patient (individual) receiving healthcare. This includes Australian citizens, permanent residents and visitors to Australia.
• Healthcare Provider Identifier - Individual (HPI-I) identifies an individual healthcare provider who provides healthcare, such as general practitioners, allied health professionals, specialists, nurses, dentists and pharmacists, among others.
• Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation (HPI-O) identifies the healthcare provider organisation that provides healthcare, such as a hospital, medical practice, pathology or radiology laboratory or pharmacy.

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.

The sections below guide you through the process to register your organisation in the HI Service and get an HPI-O.

Healthcare provider organisations participate in the My Health Record system as either:

• a seed organisation only, or 
• a network organisation that is part of a wider ‘network hierarchy’ (under the responsibility of a seed organisation).

A seed organisation is a legal entity that provides or controls the delivery of healthcare services. A seed organisation could be, for example, a local GP practice, pharmacy, private medical specialist, or the head office of a larger medical group. 

An example of a network organisation could be an individual department (e.g. pathology or radiology) within a wider metropolitan hospital. A network hierarchy operating in the My Health Record system consists of one seed organisation and one or more network organisations. All organisations will need to first register a seed organisation before establishing any network organisations.

Most healthcare provider organisations in Australia are independent – for example, suburban GP practices, pharmacies, private health specialists, or allied health care organisations. They will most likely participate in the My Health Record system as an independent seed organisation, rather than as part of a network hierarchy.

It is important for organisations to determine their structure within the HI Service before registering for My Health Record.

Larger medical groups or hospital groups are encouraged to contact the Agency help desk for support and to discuss considerations before determining their structure.

Phone: 1300 901 001 during business hours
Email: [email protected]

Your seed organisation will identify staff for two key roles to be registered with the HI Service – the responsible officer (RO) and the organisation maintenance officer (OMO). A separate OMO can be identified for a network organisation.

Responsible officer (RO): this is the officer of an organisation who has authority to act on behalf of the seed organisation and relevant network organisations (if any) in its dealings with the System Operator of the My Health Record system. They’re responsible for a seed organisation’s interaction with the HI Service and ensuring its network organisations, authorised employees and contracted service providers comply with legislation.  For large organisations, the RO may be the chief executive officer or chief operations officer. For small organisations (such as a general practice) the RO may be a practice manager or business owner.

Organisation maintenance officer (OMO): this is the officer of an organisation who acts on behalf of a seed organisation and/or network organisations (if any) in its day-to-day administrative dealings with the HI Service and the My Health Record system. Healthcare organisations can have more than one OMO if they wish. In a general practice, this role may be assigned to the practice manager, if there is one, and/or other senior staff who are familiar with the practice's clinical and administrative systems. Alternatively, the RO may take on the OMO role as well, for example in a small practice.

The diagram below shows how this may look for a seed organisation.

Find out more about the different roles in the HI Service.

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.

Register for a PRODA account

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.

Learn more

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:

1. Select the My Health Record and Healthcare Identifiers tile
2. Select Healthcare Identifiers - Register seed organisation
3. Complete the online form to register your seed organisation
4. For more information, visit the Services Australia website.

Registering a seed organisation with the HI Service also registers the organisation for My Health Record.

A network organisation provides services as part of a seed organisation, for example, a maternity ward in a hospital or a medical practice operating under a larger medical group.

If you’re registering a network organisation, you need to link it to either a seed organisation or another network organisation in the HI Service.

When you register a network organisation to use the HI Service, you’ll also need to include the healthcare organisation type.

Step 1: Register your network organisation in HPOS

You must be either an RO or an OMO of a seed organisations to register a network organisation. You need to link your new network organisation to either a seed organisation or another network organisation when registering.

To register a network organisation in the HI Service, log in to your PRODA account to access HPOS, then:

1. Select My programs then Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record.
2. Select Manage Healthcare Identifiers.
3. Select which seed or network organisation you want to link the organisation to.
4. Select the My Organisation details, and then Add organisation.
5. Follow the steps to create your new network organisation.

Once your request has been processed, the outcome will be sent to your HPOS inbox. This will include your new network organisation's HPI-O.

Once you have an HPI-O you, can register to access My Health Record (see below).

Step 2: Register your network organisation to access My Health Record

Once your network organisation has an HPI-O, the organisation's RO or OMO can register the network organisation in My Health Record.

When you register, you need to set access flags:

• By choosing 'Yes' an access flag will be set for this organisation. Consumers can restrict access to their record by this organisation.
• By choosing 'No' the access flag will be the same as the parent organisation. This network organisation will have access to the same health records as the parent organisation.

To set access flags, log in to your PRODA account to access HPOS, then:

1. Select My programs then Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record.
2. Select My Health Record - Register Organisation then Healthcare Organisation Registration.
3. Select an organisation from the list.
4. Select which organisation you want to register and what access flags they should have, then Save Changes.
5. If you agree to the terms, accept the Participation Agreement, and then select Register.

You’ve now registered your network organisation in the My Health Record system.

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.
• Option 3: If your healthcare organisation is registered with the HI Service, your organisation maintenance officer (OMO) can retrieve your HPI-I from Health Professional Online Services (HPOS), provided you have consented to have your details published in the Healthcare Provider Directory (HPD).

Eligibilty for healthcare providers not registered with Ahpra

If you are a healthcare professional in a field of practice not covered by Ahpra you may still be eligible for an HPI-I, provided that you meet the criteria for an individual healthcare provider set out in the Healthcare Identifiers Act 2010.

To be eligible, a healthcare professional must be a current member of a professional association that:

• relates to the healthcare that has been, is, or is to be provided by the member, and
• has uniform national membership requirements, whether or not in legislation.

If you believe you meet the above criteria and wish to obtain an HPI-I, see the Services Australia website for more information.

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:

or link a CSP number:

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.

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.

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.