My Occ Health Record helps keep construction moving at Family Planning NSW

Family Planning NSW is a critical part of the health infrastructure of the State, providing reproductive and sexual health services to people throughout NSW. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, the organisation rapidly adapted with COVID-safe practices introduced in its clinics and adopted new services including telehealth.

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have disrupted the long-term plans of many organisations, and for Family Planning NSW, the disruption of the construction industry impacted timelines for the development of a new state-of-the-art clinic and education facility in Newington.

My Occ Health Record (MOHR) Head Brian Borowsky said, “When the construction industry was stood down and reinstated with testing requirements for unvaccinated or newly vaccinated workers from Local Government Areas (LGA) of concern, many companies needed to find a way to keep their projects moving.”

MOHR and Family Planning collaborated with project management firm CBRE, and builder SHAPE, to implement rapid antigen testing (RAT), ensuring the health and safety of essential construction workers.

“RATs detect COVID-19 virus antigens, and while they are not as accurate as a PCR test carried out in a laboratory, they are useful in screening people who have no symptoms of COVID-19 where the risk of infection is high,” Mr Borowsky said.

“With the implementation of RATs, we can provide a safe and resilient working environment for our people during these challenging times while delivering much needed critical health facilities for our community,” SHAPE Commercial Manager James Fitzgerald said.

Family Planning NSW CEO A/Prof Ann Brassil said the organisation was proud to have health workers on staff who were qualified to deliver the tests to construction workers at the new facility and was grateful for the co-ordination and support from CBRE, SHAPE and My Occ Health Record.

“We are more than capable of handling the health elements ourselves, but we needed to ensure that we could effectively manage the process, collect data, and store it in a way that would be easy to access. My Occ Health Record supported us with those needs and helped keep our construction deadline for our new sexual and reproductive health facility on track,” A/Prof Brassil said.

“My Occ Health Record’s Health Check app supports Family Planning NSW with the implementation of RATs by putting in place a digital solution that captures the test result and status at the point of care. The app then immediately notifies key stakeholders of any possible issues, providing significant governance throughout the process, and securely storing the result,” Mr Borowsky said.

“It’s great to be able to work with Family Planning NSW,” said Mr Borowsky. “We love helping businesses of all shapes and sizes, but being able to provide continuity for such an important health service is especially pleasing.”