The Medinz communication platform is an essential tool for keeping people in New Zealand’s largest city safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The situation
Auckland has a population of around 1.7 million. Tāmaki Makaurau is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed cities and, as the main gateway to Aotearoa New Zealand, it is vulnerable to an outbreak of COVID-19 transmitted by people arriving by air and sea.
The circumstances continue to change rapidly and the consequences of mismanagement are high. Clinical guidelines change quickly and regularly too.
That’s why Medinz is being used by all of Auckland’s District Health Boards (DHBs), the COVID Northern Region Incident Control Team and the Regional Public Health Authority to efficiently communicate timely, accurate, clinically relevant and consistent health information across their networks.
Critical clinical messages are easily prioritised for GPs and healthcare providers. And it is proven to deliver these sensitive messages quickly, helping to stop the spread.
Medinz is a vital tool in supporting Auckland’s successful public health response to this pandemic.
Medinz puts patient safety at the centre of the region’s response.
The three Auckland DHBs – Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waitematā – use Medinz as their primary care communications platform for non-patient clinical information. Medinz supports the DHBs, urgent care centres, general practices, aged residential care, Māori health providers and pharmacies.
In the first nine months of the pandemic (January to October 2020), the DHBs used the Medinz platform to deliver 154 healthcare messages to thousands of practitioners across the region.
49 of these messages were critical and were sent by fax, text and email. They arrived to health practitioners within minutes of being published, meaning health practitioners were able to share this important information with their next patient or incorporate it into their immediate care.
The Medinz implementation was driven by a steering group which included the:
1. Clinical Director of Primary Care, Northern Region Health Control Centre
2. Head of Emergency Management and Response Northern Region
3. A DHB Chief Information Officer
4. Communications Directors at the DHBs
5. Clinical Lead and Communications Director for regional public health
6. Clinical Lead for Community Laboratories
7. Primary Care GP and Nurse Liaisons
Continued use of Medinz ensures practitioners have the information they need to advise patients of new COVID-19 cases have been detected in their community or to understand urgent new clinical guidelines for criteria and coding of swab tests.
In August 2020, a community outbreak of COVID-19 sent the Auckland region back into lockdown. The Northern region used Medinz to release a critical message about community testing.
“This message reached 824 organisations and 4,820 people working in primary care across the region within 15 minutes.”
“It is critical that GPs get the latest Covid-19 outbreak and update information as quickly as possible through the pandemic. Medinz has provided this ability and this has helped inform GPs of regular changes in clinical guidance, advice and testing.”Dr Stuart Jenkins – Clinical Director of Primary Care, Northern Regional Health Control Centre.
Reaching 824 organisations and 4,820 people working in primary care across the region within 15 minutes, Medinz’s ability to reliably deliver messages fast and easily cope with increasing volume supports the ongoing successful public health response in Auckland.
From 7 January to 6 October 2020 in the Auckland region, Medinz delivered:
- 154 healthcare messages, 49 of them critical.
- To approximately 4,820 practitioners.
- Critical messages taking minutes from publisher to practitioner.
- Transparency of message distribution available in real-time to publishers.
In the August 2020 community outbreak in Auckland, a critical testing message reached:
- 824 organisations, 4,820 people.
- Taking minutes from publisher to practitioner.
Your toolkit for safer communities
During COVID-19, Medinz has helped Auckland’s public health response by keeping communities safer and improving treatment. It does this by delivering:
Direct, timely information
Sending messages to specific suburbs/regions
Prioritising message dependent on level of urgency and risk
Ensuring out of office/clinic responsiveness
Visibility of message delivery and readership dashboards
100% coverage to all identified organisations
Two-way conversations between clinical experts and providers
Recipient feedback on usefulness of message
Ability to coordinate messaging across regions for particular events/processes
Processes managing publisher permission for message distribution
Giving one streamlined platform for fewer messages, greater reach and recall
Offering continuous improvement processes
