April 2011

New look for eReferrals

You may have noticed eReferrals now has a new logo. The project is now known as CareConnect eReferrals. CareConnect has been created as a brand for all regional IS initiatives including TestSafe. Grouping these projects together under one brand is more cost efficient and will also support recognition with the wide variety of stakeholders that will use these services.

New website

The eReferrals website has been updated with the new brand and new information to facilitate communication with the broad audiences affected by the new eReferrals system. Closer to the launch of eReferrals, a secure area will be added which will house training documentation and videos. The site will also have a chat function enabling GPs and hospital clinicians to ask questions when they need to. Check out our new site now on www.eReferrals.co.nz

Practice makes perfect

The Project team and healthlink are working with PHOs and individual practices to confirm all the practices in the Auckland region that operate either My Practice or Medtech Patient Management Systems and determine what version each is operating.

This work will enable us to prepare practices for the required upgrades for the eReferrals system and assist the project team to plan training and schedule the roll out of the system.

There are two components to getting general practice sites ready for eReferrals; 1. Update of the healthLink HMS Client to an auto-update version and 2. Update of the GP PMS system to the special release version required for eReferrals. Detailed information on how these updates will be applied will be issued to PHOs and general practice in the period leading up to start of the rollout.

GP PMS Releases delivered

The testing phase is now underway and will involve many parties including system vendors, DHBs, healthAlliance and the key users; i.e. GPs and DHB Central Referral Office employees.

Medtech and MyPractice have delivered alpha releases which are going through initial QA review. Following completion of that process full end to end testing and then User Acceptance Testing (UAT) will commence. The wider vendor and project team is working hard to ensure that all the required functionality is in place and operating as expected within those systems.

This testing will be followed by three practices piloting the system for approximately two weeks, planned to start in June 2011.

eReferrals Change Advisory Panel

The project team has established a panel to advise them of any processes that will change within general practice and the DHBs as a result of the introduction of eReferrals.

The panel is made up of information managers, CRO managers within each DHB and a GP liaison and will provide feedback on training plans, rollout and communications.

This panel will make a vital contribution to the smooth implementation of the eReferrals system and we appreciate their commitment to making the project a success.

Planning the next phase

There are three distinct areas of development in Phase 2. The first area focuses on hospital services that currently receive their referrals direct from GPs to continue to receive them directly but in an electronic format. Services such as Allied Health, Sexual Health, Mental Health, Child and Youth Health, Older People’s Health and Radiology will be included.

The second area of development will provide triage and tracking capability for hospital clinicians and the third will enable electronic referrals between and within hospital secondary and tertiary services.

The project team is currently meeting services to agree detailed requirements which will inform a business case for this phase of eReferrals.