E-referrals

In 2012, across the northern region, our GP's swapped pen and paper for mouse and keyboard to manage their referrals.

Health New Zealand in Waitemata, Counties Manukau and Auckland have introduced a system to enable referrals to be sent electronically to the public hospitals in the northern region, improving quality of care for patients.

Resources

Training guides

Video guides

CareConnect web e-referrals

The CareConnect web e-referrals are offered to private specialists, midwives, optometrists, physiotherapists, dentists, other HCP's who currently refer into Health NZ by fax or letter, have an HPI (CPN) number and are not using one of the integrated GP practice management systems, e.g. MedTech, MyPractice, Profile.

Getting access

Continuum of care

Convergence with other programmes of work

The diagram below illustrates the relationship between the clinical pathway and shared care programmes of work. Clinical Pathways and Shared Care may well be a precursor to a referral (i.e. a decision is made to refer for another service to contribute to the patients care). There may also be a need in the future to embed clinical pathways into e-referral forms. Already, discussions with Dr Andrea Steinberg and Dr Kim Bannister from the pathways group has resulted in simple modifications to part of the gastroenterology, skin cancer and TIA/stroke referral forms.

These modifications in the first phase of the e-referrals project incorporate the Pathway model where possible, without compromising the primary purpose of the referral. None of the three streams of work are mutually exclusive and all contribute to the patient's continuum of care. The communication between the clinical pathway group and clinical panel will continue throughout the ongoing development of the e-referrals solution. Dr. Kim Bannister, Clinical Panel member says that working on both the e-referral and Clinical Pathway projects has highlighted the synergies between the two work streams. “What we have found is that the pathway work often includes a referral component which is enabled and supported by an e-referral process — when it’s aligned with the Pathway,” says Dr Bannister.

“The clinical networks which have been formed for the pathway working groups are an efficient and useful way to agree on the components and design of the e-referral service-specific templates, in part because they include representatives of both GP and hospital based clinicians. It is possible to include specific help in the e-referral template for referring GP's to easily follow an agreed pathway when making a referral, so that it becomes an educational process for the GP, as well as improving the quality and appropriateness of referrals.”“We can see a lot more scope for development of this work in many other pathways requiring referral between the sectors involved in managing a patient.”

Diagram showing how the CareConnect services work with eachother

Frequently asked questions

I am not a GP but I still send referrals to Health New Zealand facilities. How can I do this electronically?

Web e-referrals enable clinical providers, other than GP's and practice nurses to send e-referrals to the GP's. Examples of these providers include:

dentists
physiotherapists
optometrists
ACC.

To apply for web e-referrals, see the CareConnect web e-referrals section for requirements.

How do I know if I have a digital certificate already?

Click on this link: https://my.healthlink.net (external link)

If a pop-up window appears, asking you to select a certificate with your name on it, you do have a digital certificate.

Can practice nurses send e-referrals?

Yes, within the scope of your practice, you can send e-referrals e.g, colonoscopy, district nursing services, NASC, retinopathy etc. You should not be completing e-referrals on behalf of GP's for services outside the scope of practice.

Can I send referrals to non-Health New Zealand clinicians using e-referrals e.g private services?

No, e-referrals do not cover referrals to private services.

Having difficulty attaching results and documents?

On the e-referral attachments tab the default is the last 6 months of data that has come through from the Medtech inbox. If a GP wants to attach older data they need to click on ‘Browse for patient documents’. This will bring through older documents from the Medtech inbox.

Documents attached from Medtech appear under ‘Diagnostic reports/patient documents’ on the GP preview. The GP can’t see the content of scanned documents attached, just the name. The content of lab results, radiology reports does appear in the print preview.

If a GP wants to attach from their computer (outside of Medtech) they must click on ‘Browse for local file’

When the CRO prints the referral at the hospital end, the full attachment will print (including scanned document content).

How do e-referrals fit with clinical pathways?

The diagram below demonstrates how e-referrals and clinical pathways both fit within an integrated care strategy. An e-referrral is a decision point outcome on a pathway:

Continuum of care infographic [PNG, 46 KB]

How do I request changes to existing e-referrals forms?

There is a process for agreeing changes to forms, which are regional. Visit the support and feedback section.

Do GP's need to pay any additional charges to use the electronic referral system?

No, there is no extra charge to the GP to use the system. GP's will continue paying the regular payment to their patient management system (PMS) vendor. The electronic referral facility will be available through the PMS system.

Can I as a GP copy a referral to another GP?

No, unfortunately at this stage the system will not have the ability to electronically copy referrals to other GP's.

Will all referrals look the same?

Yes, there will be a consistent template for all referrals across Health New Zealand in the northern region.

Can referrals be forwarded from one Health New Zealand facility to another?

Yes, hospitals will be able to forward referrals electronically from one Health New Zealand facility referral office to another, in the northern region only. We cannot send electronically outside of the region, e.g. Midland region.

Where will the referrals be stored?

All completed referrals will be stored within the GP PMS and a central repository in the central referral office of the relevant hospital.

Will the GP have to specify the destination for the referral to be sent to?

The form will automatically default to the hospital nearest to patient’s home address except where the service is a regional service.

How long will I have to wait before I receive acknowledgement that my referral has been received?

The average time that you will be expected to wait for an acknowledgement is 3 seconds. This could vary depending on the speed of your broadband connection.

How do I know when my e-referral has successfully arrived at the destination referral office, and then processed through triage?

The referrer will receive inbox notifications of the referral status of the referrals changes, from received to triaged, accepted or declined.

Support and feedback

Contact us

Phone: 0800 268 626
Email: ereferrals@healthalliance.co.nz

Technical help - Healthlink

Phone: 0800 288 887
Email: helpdesk@healthlink.net

Form change suggestions

Please view the feedback process document then fill and return the form to ereferrals@healthalliance.co.nz.

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