New resources aim to support practitioners to manage health records

21 Apr 2023

To help optometrists better understand and meet their health record management obligations, the Optometry Board of Australia has developed two new health record management resources.

The resources developed are available on the Board’s website. The tools include:

• a summary of the guidance about record management given in the shared Code of conduct, and
• a self-reflective tool to help assess the adequacy of record keeping and management practices.

The one-page summary, Managing health records – Summary of obligations, aims to help optometrists meet their record management requirements. It summarises the information in the Code of conduct (the code) about health record management requirements and brings all the guidance on record keeping and management from the code into a single document.

The Managing health records – Self-reflective tool is designed to help optometrists reflect on the adequacy of their record keeping and management processes. The interactive tool aims to help practitioners assess how they manage their health records and to identify opportunities for improvement.

The Board’s expectations about health records are outlined in the Code of conduct. In addition to these requirements, optometrists must also consider state, territory or Commonwealth legislation about health records and privacy that may apply.

The resources, along with several other resources covering a range of topics to support optometrists' practice, are available on Ahpra’s Resources page.

For more information

• Read and download Managing health records – Summary of obligations.
• Read and download the Managing health records – Self-reflective tool.
• Find your Board’s code of conduct.
• Find other useful resources to support your practice.

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