Human Services Directory enhancements go live

The Human Services Directory (HSD) is a Department of Health and Department of Human Services initiative that provides a single source of reliable, current and relevant information about health, community and disability services available in Victoria.

The HSD helps users find health and human services anywhere in the state and has been developed over the past six years in an ongoing process of stakeholder engagement, end user feedback, and forward planning.

The directory is a highly used service in Victoria and is seen as an essential cornerstone for the state’s eHealth initiatives and the ‘single source of truth’ for health and human services.

On 1 December, new enhancements to the HSD were added which cater for the management of contact details for a range of metropolitan and rural health stakeholders including chief executive officers, executive assistants, board chairs and board secretaries. This contact information has been populated by the respective agencies prior to the operational start date.

The directory is used extensively by Nurse on Call, the Better Health Channel, HealthSMART and Disability Online. It contains over 14,000 organisations covering 15,000 sites and has over 23,000 practitioners including the states 5,800 GPs. The number of services offered by these sites is over 30,000.

The information within the HSD is constantly being updated and enhanced and whilst core data such as GP information and service sites is as complete as possible, new areas continue to be updated and improved. Much of this work is performed collaboratively with peak bodies and agencies.

The updated functionality recently added to the HSD has been undertaken with the aim of:

• Developing a centralised funded agency contacts and address database with consistent up-to-date information.
• Building a web-based application to enable public health services and hospitals to update their own contact and address information.
• Developing hospital address and contact lists extracts for access via the department’s internet that allows internal and external organisations to access relevant hospital contact and address information.
• Developing infrastructure and business processes to support assignment of appropriate levels of security for access to personal or private information.

Various states and territories including Queensland, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and Western Australia have recognised the value of using the HSD within their own jurisdiction. The ACT is using the HSD within their jurisdiction, utilising the same arrangements that are employed in Victoria.

Further information

To find out more, visit the Human Services Directory website.