DGL Practice Manager is the UK and Ireland’s leading virtual practice management suite for consultants, practice managers and medical secretaries. Our software solution allows you to manage your practice or clinic’s administration, clinical data, finances, reporting and document creation from one central, feature-rich location.
Simply put, DGL offers more features and functionality than any other system on the market.
On Friday 3nd April historic new legislation was signed into Irish law by Minister for Health Simon Harris. The legislation removed the requirement for a physical or hard copy of a prescription to be presented in pharmacies in order to collect prescriptions that are sent via the HSE’s secure Healthmail service.
GPs can now create a prescription in their GP software system as normal and send this directly to a pharmacy via Healthmail. The pharmacy can then dispense the prescription to the patient as normal and without requiring the patient to present a signed hard copy of the prescription. All prescriptions will be stored in the HSE’s Healthmail servers to ensure a digital record is maintained.
This represents a significant change both to Irish law and to how GPs can send patient prescriptions to pharmacies throughout the country. Clanwilliam Health has supported Healthmail since its launch in 2014 and we have developed numerous Healthmail integrations into our GP software systems. Now that the legislation is in place to enable this e-prescribing, we are pro-actively working with the HSE, eHealth Ireland, our GP technology user groups and other stakeholders to ensure the Healthmail e-prescription service is enhanced in all of our GP technology systems.
Eileen Byrne, Clanwilliam Health Managing Director said: “All of our GP technology systems integrate with Healthmail today, and we look forward to continuing to work with eHealth Ireland, the HSE and our GP user groups to develop and improve these integrations. I also have no doubt that our GP users will be delighted to finally get rid of their archaic dot matrix printers from their surgeries.”
Clanwilliam Health continues to deliver functionality designed to help our users in GP practices, care homes, consultant clinics, pharmacies and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Product additions such as video consultations, electronic referrals for COVID-19 testing, Healthmail integrations and eScript have been made widely available for users during this crisis and our development teams continue to work on delivering new functionality designed to help all of users.
Referrals between hospital departments in Northland DHB can now be made electronically, saving precious time and improving patient safety.
GPs have been e-referring into hospitals in the region since 2013 but referrals between hospital departments were paper-based until the beginning of this year.
In a groundbreaking move, Northland DHB has partnered with Clanwilliam Health (formerly HealthLink) to build an integration into the hospital platform to enable e-referrals to be sent between hospital departments and beyond.
E-referrals can now also be made from hospital departments to a wide range of community providers, private specialists and, in the near future, to Auckland-based tertiary services. Some community and government organisations can also e-refer into the hospitals.
Northland DHB digital projects clinical director Dr Alan Davis says eliminating paper referrals improves efficiency and patient safety.
“Patient safety is key. Paper referrals are high risk because they can go missing, have incomplete information or poor handwriting, which can be hugely problematic and time-consuming for everyone involved,” Dr Davis says.
“It’s about building a patient-centred health ecosystem using patient-centred digital referral networks.”
Anyone to anyone e-referrals
Dr Davis says the ultimate goal is an e-referral platform in which anyone can refer to anyone within the wider health ecosystem.
“We are now moving towards that goal where anyone can refer to anyone using a single integrated platform, which would be a New Zealand first.”
Clanwilliam Health director of customer experience Paul Graham says referrals come into hospitals from GPs electronically, so the next logical step was to make referrals between hospital departments and beyond electronic as well.
“We are leveraging existing investment in HealthLink SmartForms to improve patient outcomes and help drive paper out of hospitals,” he says.
E-referrals can also be sent to hospitals in other DHBs, for example, from Whangarei Hospital in Northland DHB to Middlemore Hospital in Counties Manukau DHB.
“Again, this saves time and hassle and ensures the referrals are arriving at the intended destination with all the complete information.”
Background information:
HealthLink: HealthLink, which is part of Clanwilliam Health, is a market-leading health system integrator in New Zealand and Australia. Nearly all secure clinical communications used in New Zealand are shared through HealthLink and it’s the largest provider of secure clinical messaging services in Australia.
For media assistance, please contact:
Maggie McNaughton
Clanwilliam Health publicist
021 613198
maggie@healthycomms.co.nz
Friday 20th March 2020 – Healthcare technology company, Clanwilliam Health, today announced the national expansion of its electronic prescription notification service, eScript, in an effort to help Irish GPs and pharmacies as they seek to deal with the impact of COVID-19 here in Ireland. The company also announced plans to accelerate the roll-out of its video consultation service for private consultants and GPs to allow them to consult with and triage patients without bringing them into their clinic. In recognition of the current healthcare crisis, these services will be made available for free to GPs, Consultants and pharmacies throughout the coming months.
The eScript service has undergone extensive testing by Clanwilliam Health through a network of 705 GPs and 445 pharmacies who now use the service day-to-day. The eScript service safely sends a secure notification of the prescription details directly from the GP’s computer to the patient’s chosen pharmacy allowing that pharmacy to start preparing the prescription before the patient gets there. An automatic text message can also be sent to the patient once the prescription is ready for collection. With the need for social distancing and many people nervous about going to shops and pharmacies, this solution can help people get their prescription fulfilled without the need to handle the script or to stand around waiting in a pharmacy environment.
In a further effort to support patient care, Clanwilliam Health is also making the move to accelerate the availability of video consultations for consultants and GPs in Ireland. This new feature within the Company’s healthcare focused software systems will enable consultants and GPs to conduct remote video consultations with their patients through their software system. This means that all video consultations are securely conducted within the software which already maintains a digital record of the entire patient medical history including previous consultations, prescription details, treatment records, and allergy information.
This new functionality was released to 300 medical consultants this week. Plans to accelerate the rollout have been put in place so that the service is available to all consultants and GPs during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate the best social distancing practices for all patients, particularly those in high risk categories. The next phase will make the service available to over 50% of GPs in Ireland in the weeks ahead, in turn serving over half of the patient population in the country. Clanwilliam Health expects the service to be available in all its products within a matter of months.
“The impact of COVID-19 is widespread across the country and we know that during this time our healthcare professionals are under enormous pressure. While the focus is on flattening the curve and stopping the spread of the virus, there are still people who need contact with their medical professionals to treat other minor illnesses and in other cases support them with existing conditions. Through the range of services we’re announcing today we want to help the healthcare sector at this time, and particularly GPs and pharmacists, to help them meet their patients’ needs while still practicing the advice of social distancing.”
– Eileen Byrne, Managing Director of Clanwilliam Health
For further information please visit www.escript.ie and www.clanwilliamhealth.com.
We want to reassure our customers that it is business as usual at Bluespier and we are prepared and ready to help during this challenging time.
We are carefully monitoring and assessing any impact or potential impact of Covid-19 on our business operations. In line with our business continuity plans, we have implemented robust measures to ensure our clinical software and service to our customers remains uninterrupted and of high standard.
We are taking multiple steps to minimise health risks to our workforce, our communities and to the valuable NHS staff by facilitating working from home practices and holding all customer meetings virtually. Our support lines remain open via the usual communication channels and our Account Management team are always available to help with customer queries.
As a business, we are also flexible and ready to support any adjustments you need to make to upcoming projects. Should you require any assistance or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our team.
