BUSHkids Annual Report 2018-2019

ICT

Efficiency enhancements and fortified data security protections underpin expansion The challenges of supporting increased services — and from a growing number of locations, both virtual and actual — as well as the reporting requirements of our interfaces with external funders’ and partners’ own systems have been met head-on with vigorous, proactive measures across all BUSHkids ICT channels.

Use of the term ‘status quo’ has rarely featured in our lexicon and the dynamic evolution of the past 12 months has been a catalyst for the creative thinking needed to keep BUSHkids ‘ahead of the game’ as well as reviewing and refreshing our existing systems to ensure fit-for-purpose into the future. The imperative work of our in-house ICT team has, as always, been well-supported by the experienced skills and guidance of Council member Julian Martin, reinforced by the expertise of BUSHkids’ core technology creators and providers, proven and acknowledged over many years. Chief among these are the efforts of Dennis Siebrecht and the team at Freshmethod and the stellar support of Gerard D’Rozario and Bootstrap IT across our core systems and proprietary database. Sound forward planning and ICT solutions for ‘here and now’ operational issues have both assumed increasing importance as we evolve further beyond past service delivery models towards the exciting technological possibilities of remote teleheath methods and interconnections with other service providers, healthcare, community and government agencies. Concurrent with the privacy and confidentiality demands of both our internal and external responsibilities is the overarching security and assured day-to-day operations of all our systems and, in the past 12 months, BUSHkids has stepped-up efforts in organisation-wide protection. Internally, we have tested and released numerous security applications across our networks this year. Externally, we have engaged with Practice Protect Online and this software enables the federation of BUSHkids’ Office 365 accounts, to help prevent malicious actors from brute-forcing or otherwise stealing BUSHkids workers’ account credentials. Three shortlisted antivirus products underwent extensive software evaluation and sandbox testing, followed by the release of the selected, upgraded solution. We also implemented a Microsoft Exchange threat protection package to cover BUSHkids email traffic. Our investment in these and many other security

Growth requires support to help achieve best outcomes, and the year past has made great demands on our internal Help Desk resources. Ongoing expansion of NDIS services — for BUSHkids as well as other Partners and Providers — is an evolutionary process. All our regional EarlyStart offices have relied heavily on Brisbane Office ICT staff to provide support, particularly with NDIA-provided hardware, and we now actively participate in regular NDIA ICT meetings to stay abreast of developments, solutions and pending changes. BUSHbase , our proprietary clinical database application used by the Allied Health and administration teams, continues to grow, with numerous updates during the year — including the single largest package since its creation, which included:  a new clinical record screen, providing huge improvements in data, recording, and ease of navigation  a total overhaul of the Episode of Care screen, enabling clinicians to work across multiple regions  streamlining the collection and data input of group programs, which has seen huge increases in the number of distinct clients registered in BUSHbase  additional DSS partnership data entry options  the ability to track BUSHkids membership with the recent changes to our Constitution. These have culminated in an improved user experience and more accurate data recording, and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to exceptional clinical database management.

23

13 %+

16 %+

40%+

208

measures has, we believe, substantially and practicably reduced BUSHkids’ ICT exposure.

Posts on social media during FY 2018-19

Increase in Twitter followers, FY 2018-19 /BUSHkidsqld

Increase in Instagram posts, FY 2018-19 /BUSHkids_Qld

Increase in Facebook likes, FY 2018-19 /BUSHkids

A N N UA L R E P O R T

2 0 1 8 – 2 0 1 9