My Health Record

Clinical incidents

Legislation

Healthcare provider organisations participating in the system are required to understand and comply with a range of legislative obligations including the following legislation:

My Health Records Act 2012, My Health Records Rule 2016, My Health Records Regulation 2012, My Health Records (Assisted Registration) Rule 2015, Healthcare Identifiers Act 2010, Privacy Act 1988

All healthcare systems, including the My Health Record system and other digital health products, require careful monitoring to ensure that potential clinical incidents are identified and addressed.

A clinical incident is defined by Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care ​​​​(ACSQHC) as "an event or circumstance that resulted, or could have resulted, in unintended and/or unnecessary harm to a person and/or a complaint, loss or damage".

A clinical incident can be related to safety, usability, technical, and privacy and/or security issues.

In the context of the My Health Record system, a clinical incident may relate to the My Health Record system, content within the system, or the behaviour of clinical software when interacting with the My Health Record system.

Please note that in some circumstances, a clinical incident may also result in a data breach and specific data breach reporting obligations apply - see "Data breaches" below.

How are clinical incidents managed?

Users should report clinical incidents so the incident can be addressed and improvements made as needed. If you identify anything you think is a clinical incident or issue you should:

  1. Report the incident as soon as possible to the My Health Record Helpline, which is available 24 hours 7 days on 1800 723 471
  2. Contact your software vendor to see if the issue can be resolved locally, and if not, contact other parties (see below for which other parties to contact).

Issues with your local clinical software system:
Contact your software vendor's helpdesk

Issues with My Health Record system:
Contact Australian Digital Health Agency, My Health Record System Operator helpline 1800 723 471

Issues with Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service):
Contact the HI Service Enquiry Line on 1300 361 457

Issues with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates:
Services Australia eBusiness Service Centre for Medicare certificates 1800 700 199

Issues with Data privacy breaches:
For data breaches related to My Health Record, see guidance on how to manage a data breach on this page.

Issues with other enabling products and services, ​​for example the National Clinical Terminology Information Service (AMT, SNOMED-CT-AU):
Australian Digital Health Agency Help Centre
[email protected]
1300 901 001
8am-6pm Mon-Fri (AEDT)

Issues with technical specifications:
Australian Digital Health Agency Help Centre
[email protected]
1300 901 001
8am-6pm Mon-Fri (AEDT)