Frequently asked questions

TestSafe gives registered healthcare professionals access to:

• Test results and reports ordered by clinicians in DHB facilities
• Community laboratory test results
  Note: tests done privately, e.g. for insurance are not included in CareConnect TestSafe
• Records on prescribed medications dispensed by Community Pharmacies
• Community Radiologists reports ‘copied to’ DHB clinicians or funded by the DHBs.
• A range of clinical documents written by clinicians in the DHB facilities including clinic letters, discharge letters and community notes
• Referrals letters sent by GPs to the DHB and the DHB clinical triage response

TestSafe is a secure on-line database which is hosted within the Northern Region ICT environment. It is operated by healthAlliance on behalf of the four northern region DHBs (Auckland, Counties Manukau , Waitemata, Northland).

Day to day, TestSafe is run by healthAlliance on behalf of northern region DHBs. To manage changes to TestSafe, including requests for information, a Governance Group, including senior clinicians and primary care representation is in place. The Governance Group ensures TestSafe is used for its intended purpose.

Registered HealthCare Professionals in primary care are granted access to TestSafe subject to an application process. General Practice, Pharmacists and Community Laboratories, as contributers to the repository are granted access subject to completion of an 'Access Deed'. The professional registration of all appllicants is checked prior to a login being allocated. Community Pharmacists may only see a specific set of laboratory results to support dispensing clinical procedure.

Other primary care providers such as specalists and private hospitals may also apply for access. DHB based staff, authorised to access patient's clinical information, have are provided access subject to standard DHB policy and checks.

TestSafe is only available via the secure NZ 'Health Network'. If you use Special Authorities or NHI Online you already have access to the HealthNetwork. For more information, or to get access, click on the following link: Health Network.

To get a TestSafe login you must sign and return an agreement with the DHB's to maintain patient privacy, known as an Access Deed. Once the TestSafe Service Desk has received and processed your signed Access Deed, you will be sent a package with your login details. Forms are provided in the Get access section.

As it contains sensitive health data, TestSafe is subject to comprehensive privacy arrangements, click on the following link to view the overall Privacy Framework. Access is only possible via the high security ‘health network’ and not the internet.

Only registered healthcare professionals are given access to the system. They are governed by their professional registration body (subject to the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003) including a code of practice concerning patient privacy and confidentiality.

Patient's have the option to prevent sharing their information via TestSafe, for more information refer to "How does prevent sharing information work?" included th FAQs below.

For General Practice and Pharmacy users, the system performs a check when a patient’s record is accessed to see if there is known relationship with user’s organisation, i.e., if the patient is registered to the practice or has dispensings from the pharmacy. If no relationship between the patient and the user’s organisation is found, an exception record is created.

User’s must provide reasons for exceptions and TestSafe administrators perform other ‘audit’ checks on these. For example, each month some of the exceptions are selected and the patient concerned contacted so they can confirm the situation.

Each month, a number of Users are selected and thier access reviewed. For more information on this process, refer to 'User Review' above.

DHB based staff are provided with access to TestSafe subject to strict controls in their employment contract, along with training in their obligations to patients. Staff are permitted to view a patient’s community based results only if they are currently under the care of the DHB. Access to results is audited by TestSafe and procedures are in place to identify any inappropriate activity. Any breaches of code of practice are treated seriously and may result in dismissal or a formal censure process by the relevant professional registration body.

Patient's may request that their community based information is not shared via TestSafe. If so, the information is not visible to community based TestSafe Users or staff in DHB based facilities. Patients should be encouraged to take responsibility for their choices and to use the 0800 268 626 number if they wish.

Prevent Sharing via Call Centre

Patients may call 0800 268 626 at any time and prevent sharing

• community laboratory results
• community pharmacy dispensing records
• or both
• by date range (e.g. relating to a healthcare episode)

Prevent Sharing via HealthCare Provider

As a test orderer you can indicate this on the patient’s behalf using the ‘Prevent TestSafe Sharing’ option on the lab order form. Most tests are ordered using a form printed from a Patient Management System (PMS). Instructions to set up your PMS lab order template are provided under "GPs", "PMS Set Up" above.
NOTE: All the items ordered on a form are subject to the prevent sharing instruction, so if you want to affect only some results, multiple test order forms must be used.

Pharmacists may also prevent sharing dispensing records on request from the patient. Detailed instructions on how to do this in the dispensary system are provided under Pharmacists  and  Patient Choice