Category: News

Introducing Video consulting for iMedDoc

Posted on by Lauren Turner

At iMedDoc we are committed to helping you however best we can at all times but particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this in mind, we are happy to announce that video consultations are now available in your system. Our development team has worked around the clock to deliver this functionality in the hope that it will make your day-to-day activities a little bit easier.

iMedDoc allows you to virtually see and consult with your patients online. Using our in-house purpose built video consultation platform, we are making healthcare visits more accessible for everyone. All you and your patient will need is access to the internet and virtually any device, ranging from a PC or Mac to a mobile device or tablet. Once you make a video consultation booking with in the system your patient will receive an automated confirmation email with a link to their appointment.

The process is very simple, you share a link with your patient and they click on the link to enter the video consultation. They can see you and you can see them via the camera on both of your devices. We recommend that you use the system via a broadband connection to ensure the best possible results.

Literally everything is handled via our cloud based HD video conferencing system meaning all communications take place within the secure parameters of our system. iMedDoc HD video conferencing integrates seamlessly, is completely scalable and there is zero infrastructure, setup or maintenance cost. And seeing as we have developed it ourselves it is possible for larger clinic groups to brand their video consultation experience.

 

iMedDoc is now part of Clanwilliam Group

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Clanwilliam Group expands its healthcare technology and services portfolio with EMR and clinical outcome software provider, iMedDoc

Cork-headquartered, iMedDoc Software specialises in cloud-based EMR solutions for Surgeons, Physiotherapists and many other specialists, as well as clinical outcome software used in a range of specialities such as orthopaedics, gynaecology and neurology.

The company’s expertise in cloud-based technology will complement Clanwilliam Group’s diverse and trusted product range across the UK & Ireland and Asia-Pacific territories.

Howard Beggs, CEO of Clanwilliam Group, said:

“We are very pleased to start the year by welcoming KM Medical Software into the Clanwilliam Group family of businesses. Innovation is always high on our strategic agenda and KM Medical’s impressive products and technology stack fits extremely well with Clanwilliam’s growth strategy. Our immediate focus is on the clear and exciting synergies between iMedOrtho, KM’s cloud-based clinical outcomes solution, and our NHS Trust and Hospital product portfolio and customer base in the UK.

“As with any of our acquisitions, KM customers can be confident that we will continue to uphold the high standards of service that they are used to while we explore value-adding integration and collaboration opportunities between our various primary and secondary healthcare software solutions.”

Mr. Mahalingam, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mater Private Hospital and iMedDoc founder said:

“My wife Mary and I started the business in Cork in 2005.We were one of the first healthcare companies to adopt what was then emerging cloud platforms. We initially designed software products to solve the challenges I had in my own orthopaedic practice and the company has continuously evolved since that time. We are delighted by the success of our core product as well as innovations like that of our clinical outcomes software and take this opportunity to thank our clients for their trust over the years, our partners, including Focus Capital, Enterprise Ireland, Cresco for their continued support and my team, led by Andrew O’ Donoghue, who worked tirelessly on these services. Their hard work has been greatly appreciated.”

“We’re very proud to be joining Clanwilliam in creating a digitally connected healthcare environment for medical professionals. We look forward to introducing our products to new customers, in new territories with the ultimate goal of advancing patient care.”

 

 

 

 

Epilepsy NZ educators continue to provide life-changing support

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Epilepsy New Zealand educators are providing life-changing support to people around the country diagnosed with epilepsy.

The charitable organisation’s team of trained educators provide free support, information, advocacy and education to people living with epilepsy.

E-Referrals can be made to Epilepsy NZ using CareSelect.

One person with epilepsy describes the life-changing impact an Epilepsy NZ educator had on their life.

“My first seizure came out of the blue. I felt scared, vulnerable and worried about the future for me and my family. However, my world changed after I reached out to an educator.

“They spoke with me and I felt for the first time someone was listening as I offloaded all my worries, fears, and uncertainties for the future, myself and my family. I felt validated for first time since my first seizure occurred.”

The educator linked their family to community support and helped them navigate the situation with their employer.

“I was able to put a care plan in place, should I have a seizure at work. Educators are a vital support service for all people and communities living with or without epilepsy. Me and my extended whānau are forever grateful for the support we received.”

Support groups key

Epilepsy affects around 1% of the population and an estimated 48,000-50,000 people have epilepsy in New Zealand, Epilepsy NZ chief executive Ross Smith says.

Once a person has been diagnosed with epilepsy by their neurologist or GP, Epilepsy NZ continues the education and support.

“We’re part of the wider healthcare team and we help the person in their journey, supporting them every step of the way,” Ross says.

Support groups are a key part of that support, says one educator.

“Sometimes the diagnoses and impact of seizures can knock the resilience of individuals. Support group attendees benefit from the group experience, often soaking up information and learning effective coping strategies from other participants who are doing well.

“There is no time limit on when they share their personal story. When the individual feels the time is right, they often open up about their challenges and fears.”

Support at schools

Another educator describes the support offered at schools.

“After a prolonged seizure, I met with a young girl and her family to help them understand more about different types of seizures, first aid, seizure management plan (SMP) suggestions and ideas for her at home and school.

“I went to the young girl’s school, to give an understanding epilepsy training session to the teaching staff. We also talked about the young girl’s SMP, and other challenges she may face. Learning about epilepsy, her seizures and the SMP, really helped them all to have more awareness and gain confidence.”

How to refer to Epilepsy New Zealand:

  • Open the patient record

  • Select the HealthLink icon

  • Use the CareSelect search bar, type “Epilepsy New Zealand”

  • Click “Compose Referral”.


Introducing One-Click Dispensing

Posted on by Lauren Turner

We are delighted to introduce our new game-changing feature, One-Click Dispensing.

We understand the growing pressures on pharmacies to adopt a more service-led role within public healthcare. As your PMR provider, we see it as our responsibility to work with our customers to bring new efficiencies and improved workflows to your RxWeb system, freeing you up to focus on what matters, delivering exceptional care to the public.

This brand new feature was developed to dramatically speed up the dispensing flow for repeat items or items repeated to a patient where no changes have occurred.

 

So how does it work?

One-Click uses a series of algorithms to check each prescription downloaded into the “To Be Dispensed” queue to check if they are eligible for One-Click Dispensing.

The algorithms check that each item to be dispensed is for a known patient and meets the One-Click criteria, which includes the following checks:

  • The drug is one that has been dispensed previously for the patient within x days (system default is 180 days, but this is configurable).

  • There has been no change to the directions.

  • There has been no change to the dosage.

  • The drug does not appear in the ‘One-Click Exclusions’ list (created and managed by you).

There are a number of configuration options within RxWeb to allow you to set certain algorithms so that the system will work in the best way for your pharmacy, keeping you in control.

 

What types of prescriptions will One-Click cover?

One-Click will allow the dispensing of repeat scripts (eRPT and RPT), as well as, Acute (ACU) scripts (configurable option), which meet the criteria.

 

What are the benefits?

One-Click Dispensing is going to save you time. A lot of it!

Based on our review of a typical community pharmacy, we estimate that up to 72% of EPS2 prescriptions could be eligible for One-Click Dispensing. With that figure, the following time savings can be made.

That’s a potential of 228 hours per year, which can be saved or redeployed within the business!

Scripts eligible for One-Click are calculated by looking at how many EPS scripts in a typical community pharmacy would meet the One-Click criteria.

Other benefits include:

  • Check high-level interactions and notes on one screen.

  • Print labels and tokens from the same screen.

  • Complete the exemption check and mark items collected (depending on your chosen system configurations).

 

When do you get it?

One-Click will be included in the next system release scheduled for the coming weeks. Initially, One-Click will be piloted by a small number of customers before being released to everyone early in the new year. Once available, you will be able to switch it on at your own discretion. Early testing and feedback have been hugely positive.

We are very excited for you all to get your hands on this brilliant new feature. We have enjoyed bringing our customers some truly innovative updates throughout the year and we look forward to bringing even more in 2022.

 

Sydney LHD roll-out SmartForm e-Referrals to 58 clinics and services

Posted on by Lauren Turner

After a successful e-Referral rollout, Sydney Local Health District is not looking back.

Sydney Local Health District has continued the roll out of e-Referral to 58 clinics and services, enabling more than 260 local general practices to refer to Sydney Local Health District ambulatory care services using HealthLink SmartForms.

We caught up with Paul Bennett, Program Manager HealthPathways Sydney and e-Referral Project, and Sarah Friend, e-Referral Project Officer, to hear more about the journey.

Why did Sydney Local Health District introduce GP e-Referrals?

The project was established to improve the quality and safety of referral processes, through the introduction of secure electronic referral processes. Following a successful pilot in 2018 and investigating what e-Referral systems were available, Sydney Local Health District determined HealthLink was the optimal platform for general practice referrals to our ambulatory care services. Paul Bennett noted: “The added benefit was that general practitioners were already using HealthLink SmartForms to refer to other hospitals and organisations, so all roads led to Sydney Local Health District working with HealthLink to expand the availability of e-Referral in general practice.”

For Sydney Local Health District, e-Referral aims to play a role in transforming a patient’s transition from primary to secondary care by enabling referrals to be securely sent, reducing the reliance on legacy communication systems including fax.

The introduction of e-Referral is not just about efficiency and quality, but ease of use, avoiding wastage and minimising patient delay to accessing ambulatory care services. General practitioners now receive acknowledgement the referral has been received by the Sydney Local Health District service, which gives them and their patients peace of mind, and reduces time with referrers no longer having to follow up or generate multiple referrals.

How has HealthLink’s SmartForms technology supported GP referrals?

The introduction of e-Referral has supported general practice on a number of fronts. The e-Referral Project Team explained, “as referrals are integrated into general practitioners’ practice software, it makes it easier to connect and autopopulate the referral with patient demographic and clinical information, saving the GP time and ensuring the referral is made to the correct service.”

HealthLink SmartForms support GP referrals by providing a system acknowledgment message noting service receipt of the referral. They also receive messages on whether the referral is accepted or declined. Paul Bennett added: “All e-Referrals align with the locally relevant HealthPathways, which supports GPs with clinical decision support and service information and facilitates the transfer of key diagnostic information, minimising repeat pathology and radiology investigations and time. The synergy between e-Referral and HealthPathways Sydney, enables consistent and standardised information between the two general practice facing platforms. This has been a key focus for Sydney Local Health District e-Referral implementations since the project’s inception.


Victoria SmartForms statewide rollout – North Western Melbourne PHN

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Background: In 2016, the journey to e-Referrals began with the National Digital Health Strategy. Now, five years later, Victoria has successfully rolled out e-Referrals statewide. We caught up with some of the PHNs who have been behind the rollout to reflect on the journey that has brought them to this successful outcome.

 

Sarah O’Leary

Director of Integrated Care | North Western Melbourne PHN

 

When and why did North Western Melbourne PHN introduce GP e-Referrals?

North Western Melbourne PHN’s (NWMPHN) role has been supporting the change management that was required to implement e-Referrals. This included identifying the change management that was needed to support general practice teams to manage e-Referrals within their workflows.

We advocate on behalf of general practice to the hospitals and health services to ensure they consider the role of general practice in their e-Referral process. For example, Northern Health, who works with HealthLink, planned to transition to an e-Referral process. NWMPHN supported communication and education sessions with GPs in our region who were affected by this change.

For e-Referral to work it requires systems in place at both the hospital and GP end. Most GPs now have compliant software and we are seeing more and more hospitals with electronic systems, so we are hopeful that it will be more common in our region  in the future.

How has HealthLink’s SmartForms technology supported GP e-Referral?

E-Referral is the transfer of information. For the process to really work it needs agreement from hospitals, specialists and GPs on what information is required for a referral to be accepted. HealthLink SmartForms have specialist referral criteria integrated into the form so the GP doesn’t need to leave the form to check the criteria.

How have GPs across Melbourne and your referrer catchment adopted this solution?

Anecdotally we can say when the hospitals moved to e-Referrals, it went well.

What is the great benefit GPs have received by using the new eReferrals ?

The integration of the process to align with the GP’s workflow. HealthLink has connected the Specialist Referral Criteria into the workflow so the GP doesn’t have to go outside the referral form to check what is needed for the referral and then go back in. It’s all integrated.

Based on your current experience, would you ever go back to life before GP eReferrals?

As a health system, no.

To start using GP e-Referrals, check out our HealthLink SmartForm user guides for:

  • Best Practice

  • Genie Solutions

  • Medical Director 3.16 and Above


New e-Referral form for Onsite Ultrasound

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Locally owned and operated Onsite Ultrasound has been providing high-quality ultrasound services for people in Hawke’s Bay for 14 years.

E-Referrals can now be made to Onsite Ultrasound using CareSelect.

Onsite Ultrasound practice manager Kelly Fraser says the new tailor-made e-Referral form will help make the pathway easier for doctors to refer patients.

“The e-Referral form is quick and easy to use, saves time and is way more secure compared to faxing, emailing, phoning or handing a patient a paper referral,” she says.

“E-Referrals are definitely the way forward.”

Onsite Ultrasound has a team of 10 people and operates out of two sites – one in Napier and one in Hastings.

“We provide high-quality ultrasound services using the latest technology and equipment,” Kelly says.

Services on offer include pregnancy, general abdominal, small parts, pelvic, vascular, obstetric and musculoskeletal scans. Ultrasound-guided cortisone injections are also available.

Kelly says customer service is a big focus for the small, friendly team.

“Our team provides high-quality imaging alongside great customer service with friendly faces every step of the way.”

Urgent reports available

Kelly says urgent reports are available within the hour if required.

“Our general wait times for scans is minimal and we also put aside appointments every day for urgent cases should they arise,” she says.

“We also get our reports out as soon as possible after a scan has been completed.”

Free ACC scans are also available for patients who qualify (a surcharge applies for radiologist procedures).

“We’ve had lots of positive feedback over the years and pride ourselves on the high-quality service we provide and our friendly team.”

How to refer to Onsite Ultrasound:

  • open the patient record

  • select the HealthLink icon

  • use the CareSelect search bar, type “Onsite Ultrasound”

  • click “Compose Referral”.


Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust implements new Emergency Whiteboard

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has implemented a brand-new process for patients arriving in the emergency department using a new electronic scheduling whiteboard.

The scheme, implemented in early July, sees patients arriving in the emergency department added to the Whiteboard immediately by emergency coordinators.  The team can then add patients to appropriate theatre slots as needed, make quick scheduling changes and retain complete oversight of patient location, treatment status, CEPOD status and extra quality improvement goals known as CQUINs.

The Emergency Whiteboard, from Bluespier, is also fully integrated with the Trust’s EPR, Careflow.  After patients are scheduled via the drag and drop functionality into the appropriate theatre slot on the Whiteboard, the central patient record housed in Careflow links automatically with the event, ensuring one accurate patient care record without the need to duplicate information.

Once scheduled for surgery, patients remain on the Whiteboard until staff make the decision to officially discharge, ensuring patients remain visible to care teams throughout their entire episode of care and staff have a true visual of the current resources of the emergency department.

Ben Jolly, Clinical Lead in Theatres at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust: “The Bluespier Emergency Whiteboard has helped improve the organisation of patients booked onto the emergency theatre list. It allows us to plan patient care better and improve the care and experience that our patients receive. 

Stuart van Rooyen, Managing Director at Bluespier, said: “This has been an excellently executed project thanks to the talent and diligence of the Trust staff, Bluespier and System C representatives.  The majority of the implementation was managed remotely due to current restrictions but the excellent communication between teams ensured this went live without a hitch.”

“We understand the pressures that hospitals are under and are very proud that our solutions can help improve efficiency and ultimately patient care within high pressure environments.”

After just one month’s use, 203 patients have successfully been admitted via the Emergency Whiteboard.

Save Hours Each Month With Trusted Dosages

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Your team could save hours each month with our new Trusted Dosages feature!

 

What is Trusted Dosages?

You may remember that we introduced this new feature in our August release. This new feature allows RxWeb to convert many of the common GP text Strings to a Trusted Dosage mapping.

For Example, in 3 months across our environment, the downloaded GP Dosage of ‘1 nocte’ occurred 30931 times.

This would usually be changed to ‘ONE to be Taken at NIGHT’. Further analysis showed hundreds of variants of codes that essentially meant the same thing e.g. take one daily, One To Be Taken Each Day, 1 TABLET ONCE A DAY, take one once daily, TAKE ONE DAILY, ONE TO BE TAKEN DAILY, 1 OD, One To Be Taken Daily, 1 TABLET ONCE DAILY occurred 855420 times.

All of these are essentially ‘ONE to be Taken DAILY’.

RxWeb has had a pharmacist prepare a system mapping table of the commonly seen dosages strings to a clear and consistent instruction. This is also something you can manage yourself if you choose to. If you don’t think our mappings fit your requirements you can create your own.

 

The Impact

Since its launch back in August, Trusted Dosages has had a major impact on the customers using it, helping them to save hours each month whilst improving the clinical safety of manually entering dosage syntax. We have estimated that on average, a successfully mapped item saves a pharmacist about 3 seconds in checks and changes.

Although feedback from users would suggest that this is a very conservative estimate with many saying that they are probably saving 4-5 seconds per item.

So how do those saved seconds translate? Well, in the below table we have outlined exactly how many seconds, minutes, and hours we’ve saved Trusted Dosage users in the past month.

Trusted Dosages has saved our customers over 1,246 hours of work in the first month of use. This equates to a saving of almost 3 hours per site, per month. And it’s worth noting that these numbers are set to increase substantially as we have now increased the number of Trusted Dosage mappings from 300 to over 1000.

 

How to enable Trusted Dosages on your system

Trusted Dosage can be switched on in system configurations. From the menu at the top of your screen go to System/System Configuration and select the options shown under Categories and Sub Categories. Highlight the line ‘Use Trusted Dosage Conversion’ and change the value at the bottom to ‘Yes’ and then press ‘Update’.

If you wish to learn more about creating your own mappings we have created a guide which you can find in our release notes below.

Full details about the Trusted Dosages functionality can be found in the ‘Release S Detailed Overview’ notes here.

 

Victoria SmartForms statewide rollout – Northern Health

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Background: In 2016, the journey to e-Referrals began with the National Digital Health Strategy. Now, five years later, Victoria has successfully rolled out e-Referrals statewide. We caught up with some of the PHNs who have been behind the rollout to reflect on the journey that has brought them to this successful outcome.

 

Bonnie Ferguson

Project Lead | Northern Health

 

When and why did Northern Health introduce GP e-Referrals?

Northern Health implemented e-Referrals in 2017, initially as a pilot project. That was then integrated into standard process, however, GP uptake was slow. In 2020 Northern Health observed a significant increase in GP utilisation of e-Referrals in response to a dedicated project to “Axe the Fax”, initiated with the aim to reduce clinical risk due to fax error and lost paper referrals.

How has HealthLink’s SmartForms technology supported GP e-Referral?

Northern Health has implemented seven HealthLink SmartForms, which have assisted to improve the quality of referrals received with the inclusion of statewide referral criteria and information that needs to be included to support the referral.

Have there been any noticeable improvements to the patient referral transfer process from GPs to Northern Health since HealthLink was introduced?

Yes, there have been significant improvements to the referral transfer process since HealthLink e-Referrals were introduced, including:

  • More timely registration of patients as transmission includes coded data of patient profile and GP profile, reducing manual data entry points.

  • Greater referral security.

  • Higher reliability of complete transmission of clinical content.

  • Improved legibility as documents are received in digital format.

  • Acknowledgement of successful transmission.

  • HL7 messaging enabling tracking of referrals.

  • Reduced time from referral to first appointment.

How have GPs across Melbourne and your referrer catchment adopted this solution?

GP adoption of e-Referrals has been the key strategy towards mitigation of risk due to fax error. Identification of GP clinics as the source of fax errors enabled rapid response and interventions that provided targeted support and education to GPs in how to access and use HealthLink e-Referrals.

What is the greatest benefit GPs have received by using the new e-Referrals?

A more streamlined, easy-to-use process for GP referrers as the electronic referral feature is integrated into GP clinical software used by over 80% of general practices in the NH catchment.

Increased transparency for referrer and Specialist Clinic as referrals can be tracked more easily with referral date stamps and locations within the workflow (i.e. reduced loss of referral at the Specialist Clinic end)

Are you making specific improvements to your GP e-Referrals? Why, what are your goals?

The future goals of Northern Health are to improve communication to GPs and the quality of referrals received. This could be achieved by;

  • The further development of SmartForms for all specialities where statewide referral criteria is available.

  • The development of SmartForms for referral by GPs to diagnostic clinics.

  • Exploring the capability of return communication to GPs via HealthLink.

For those GP practices who do not have compatible clinical software that support HealthLink e-Referrals (approximately 20% of referring GPs), a future goal would be to provide education and support in the use of HealthLink’s web-based portal, which will allow referrers to complete a referral form securely online and attach necessary reports and results.

Based on your current experience, would you ever go back to life before GP e-Referrals?

No way, never!!

 

 

To start using GP e-Referrals, check out our HealthLink SmartForm user guides for:

  • Best Practice

  • Genie Solutions

  • Medical Director 3.16 and Above