Health Navigator NZ has won the ACC Patient Safety Award category of the 2021 New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora.
Health Navigator NZ's entry focused on improving medicine safety through a range of resources, including website content, such as this information on the safe use of medicines, medicine dose calculators, such as the paracetamol dose calculator, translated medicine fact sheets, such as on dabigatran and rivaroxaban and videos on how to use medicine devices, such as these ones on inhaler use.
The awards support the primary healthcare sector, because a strong primary care sector is key to a successful health system in Aotearoa New Zealand. Primary health care relates to the professional health care provided in the community, usually from a general practitioner (GP), practice nurse, nurse practitioner, pharmacist or other health professional working within a general practice.
The awards encourage collaboration and innovation in primary care, with the aim of improving access, health and wellbeing outcomes for Māori and non-Māori alike.
The ACC Patient Safety Award category aims to encourage organisations to improve safety for patients across the sector, with medicine safety being one aspect of this. If not used correctly, medicines can cause serious harm and even death. These effects are also a source of significant costs for organisations and whānau.
The Health Navigator NZ website provides Kiwis with easy-to-understand, New Zealand-focused resources to help them take, give and store their medicines safely. The website has more than 500 medicine information pages, including topics such as driving and medicines, general safety tips and understanding medicines labels, as well as videos, quizzes and dose calculators.
Health Navigator NZ has a reach of more than one million page views per month and medicines pages receive more than 2.6 million views per year.
Other award categories
Health Consumer Advisory Service (HCAS) member Barbara Broome was also a finalist in the Good Sort award for her lifetime of community contribution, particularly in the health and disability sector. Read about the other 2021 winners in the New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora.
Learn more
New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora