New digital health training facility a first for Sydney Local Health District.
 

Concord Hospital has launched new digital health training rooms that will boost Sydney Local Health District’s training capacity and put the hospital at the forefront of preparations for the Single Digital Patient Record. 

The state-of-the-art rooms – which will be primarily used for Electronic Medical Record (eMR) training, including onboarding – were launched by Anthony Dombkins, Concord Hospital General Manager, and Aaron Jones, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Officer and Director, Health Informatics Unit, Digital Health & Innovation, at a small ceremony this month. 

Anthony Dombkins said Concord Hospital had been a leader in digital health since the 1980s and the new rooms were a valuable addition to the hospital. 

“These training rooms are testament to the ‘can-do’ Concord approach, which has supported the transformation of existing spaces into a valuable resource, that can be utilised by Concord staff and staff from across the District,” he said. 

“The rooms are already supporting training delivery, effectively meeting the demands of a growing number of staff onboarded each year.” 

Aaron Jones said the new rooms were the “perfect environment for training and learning” and he celebrated the collaboration of Concord Hospital and District teams, including Digital Health Systems Education Service, Concord Health Informatics Team and Capital Infrastructure and Engineering. 

The training rooms have been fitted with repurposed furniture and new computers to provide appropriate workstations for staff attending digital health systems training. 

Concord Health Informatics Team Manager Jackie Laurens said the new facilities would be the foundation for preparations for the Single Digital Patient Record and were “hopefully the first of many across the District”. 

Digital Health Systems Education Service Manager Kerry Hides-Pearson said the training rooms would provide valuable support for the introduction of the Single Digital Patient Record, scheduled for 2027. 

“We're going to need state-of-the-art digital health training rooms, because we'll be training 13,000 people in a period of eight weeks,” she said. 

“It's going to be next level in 2027. At the moment, these two rooms are the only purpose-built training rooms for digital health education in Sydney. We're really looking to get these training rooms in each of the facilities.”