October 2011

Pilot Progress

Our 2 Medtech pilot practices have been submitting eReferrals for over 3 weeks. Mt Wellington Family Health Centre and Mairangi Medical Centre practices have between them submitted over 100 referrals to the Central Referral Offices. Referrals have been received for following 26 services and sub-specialties:

Audiology, Breast (2), Cardiology (7), Dermatology General (2), Dermatology Cancer, Diabetes (6), Endocrinology (4), Gastroenterology Endoscopy (8), Gastroenterology Gastro Clinic (5), General Medicine, General Surgery Colorectal (4), Gen Surg Other (3), Haematology(2), Immunology (2), Neurology, Ophthalmology (5),Oral Health, ORL (17), Orthopaedics (4), Paediatric Medicine (3), Paediatric Surgery & Paediatric Urology (3), Plastic & Hand, Respiratory (2), Rheumatology (2), Urology (5), Womens Health Gynaecology (12), Womens Health Obstetrics & Maternity (2).

Demographically, referrals have been received for ADHB (47), WDHB (46), and for Counties Manukau (4).

More pilot practices will be bought on board to give a wider geographic coverage.

Pilot – Next Steps

The MyPractice PMS has now been accepted into the pilot and so in the next week two additional sites will be added.

During the following weeks of the pilot, vendors will be delivering additional releases to address issues identified during system testing and pilot phases. These releases will be tested and promoted into production prior to the system being signed off for full rollout.

GP Information Session 30 August – Lost and Found

Many attendees were surprised to find that the Institute for Chartered Accountants had moved 9 months earlier from Remuera to Parnell, but once everyone arrived for our Clinical Panel lead information session, much lively debate took place and many suggestions for the Phase Two implementation were noted.

The Panel was chaired by Kim Bannister (GP), and supported by Harley Aish (GP), Jim Kriechbaum (GP), Jeff Garret (Clinician, CMDHB) and Susan Stott (Clinician, ADHB)

“The same people involved with eReferrals have been involved with clinical pathways and with radiology access to diagnostics. We can see these coming together and some very substantial advancements coming over the next few years so we need to have some patience while this work is completed, but this is a very exciting, early stage of development and we are all looking forward to it”. – Jeff Garret

“60 second world class referrals – unfortunately our DHBs have said they don’t receive many of these. Our colleagues in Northland surveyed the GPs before and after and found GPs were doing referrals after hours and banking up all their referrals. GPs have started doing them now in consultations – so it has saved the average GP time to complete referrals.” – Kim Bannister

“eReferrals is going to help us manage referrals more effectively and give GPs the information they need about a patient.” – Sue Stott

An exit survey was conducted and of those surveyed about the effectiveness of the evening, 93% agreed or strongly agreed it was useful. 80% agreed or strongly agreed that the session helped them to understand the format and structure of eReferrals forms. 83% agreed or strongly agreed that they will be using the system.

The whole session was videoed and will be available on our website for viewing in the near future.

CRO Office Feedback on the Pilot

All the CRO staff had received their training and were ready and willing for the pilot to start, and while they haven’t been overwhelmed with volumes so far, they are noticing some real benefits:

“We have been working with the technical team to iron out some minor technical issues and so far, it seems to be going well. The improved legibility is great” –Grant Develling, WDHB

Phase 2 Update

CareConnect eReferrals Phase2 requirements document is now complete and been delivered to vendors (Orion and Healthlink) for their review.

The project is going through the Implementation Planning Study (IPS) phase. The purpose of the IPS is to confirm functional and technical scope and approaches to meet the requirements. The first draft of the IPS document has been prepared by vendors and reviewed by the ARDHB project team. This is expected to be finalised in the next two weeks.

Help Yourself to Training Resources

All training resources are available from this site, on the Resources Page.Resources include a Quick Reference Guide Medtech and Quick Reference Guide My Practice Video Training Guides are also available for the following:

Medtech

• Generic Referral Form
• Specialty Form
• Park & Retrieve a Form
• Exception examples

My Practice

• Generic Referral Form
• Specialty Form
• Park & Retrieve a Form
• Exception examples

Introducing Natasha Hulston – Your Help Person

Natasha’s role is to support CareConnect e-Referrals and those of you who will be using it.
If you ring our 0508-227 326 helpline for assistance, it is Natasha who will be getting back in touch with you to answer your questions.
Alternatively you can email her at eReferrals@healthalliance.co.nz and she will respond to your email.