Category: News

National Referral Service to decommission the use of fax referrals

Posted on by Lauren Turner

National Referral Service to decommission the use of fax referrals:

My Aged Care Paves the Way for Digital Transformation with e-Referrals

The Department of Health and Aged Care has announced a significant milestone in the digital transformation of Australia’s healthcare system. On July 31 2023 the nationwide referral program, My Aged Care, will bid farewell to fax referrals, marking a crucial step towards a more efficient and secure referral process.  

e-Referrals, powered by HealthLink SmartForm technology, offer an alternative referral pathway to fax and are integrated into Best Practice, Genie, MedicalDirector, Medtech Evolution, Shexie and Zedmed practice management systems (PMS) and are free of charge for HealthLink customers. Decommissioning the use of the My Aged Care fax number (1800 728 174) will streamline a client’s aged care journey by removing manual processing of client information ensuring it is fast, efficient, and secure. Unlike fax machines, e-Referrals enable pre-population of information in a complete and legible manner, providing confirmation of receipt and expediting the progress of patients through their aged-care journey. e-Referrals significantly reduce errors and the need for My Aged Care Contact Centre staff to clarify information with patients or GPs.

Other referral pathways exist for those who don’t have a compatible PMS. Patients can be referred to My Aged Care for an assessment via the phone, the “Make a Referral Form” on the My Aged Care website or the MyHealthLink Portal, a web-based solution for sending My Aged Care referrals free of charge. 

Director of the My Aged Care Online Services and Information Section, Kylie Sauer, encourages health professionals to embrace e-Referrals to save time and provide the best service to their patients. Sauer says, “e-Referrals have improved healthcare workers’ experience by offering better integration into their existing workflow, taking away the need to exit their PMS to send a referral.” 

General practices throughout Australia are increasingly adopting SmartForm technology and are leaving fax machines behind.  

HealthLink’s unique business model and extensive network, eliminates commercial, privacy, security, or technological barriers associated with the usage and adoption of integrated SmartForm programs. Several organisations in Australia have already mandated the use of HealthLink’s SmartForm technology and Secure Messaging service as the only means of communicating patient information within the health system. 

Feedback from healthcare professionals using My Aged Care e-Referrals has been overwhelmingly positive. Dr Eric Davey, a GP from New South Wales, saves approximately 10-15 minutes per referral using e-Referrals. He expressed his satisfaction, saying, “I can ensure the information I feel is important is included, and I’m confident the information is going directly to My Aged Care. The e-Referrals are also confidential and easily amended.” 

Emma Zanker, a practice nurse coordinator in South Australia, regularly uses e-Referrals to refer patients for a My Aged Care assessment. She recommends other practices adopt My Aged Care e-Referrals due to their ease of use and the substantial time savings of approximately 20 minutes per referral compared to previous methods. 

HealthLink are continuing its SmartForms modernisation journey with plans to approach Cloud-based Practice Software vendors later this year. This ongoing effort will ensure that the benefits of e-Referrals are accessible to an even wider range of healthcare providers, further streamlining the referral process and enhancing patient care. 

The national shift towards e-Referrals marks a significant advancement in the Australian healthcare system. By embracing this approach, referrers can enhance efficiency, security, and the overall patient experience. The phased elimination of fax referrals demonstrates the commitment of the Department of Health and Aged Care to leverage technology for the betterment of healthcare services across the country. 


Outpatient eReferrals expanding to the majority of NSW Local Health Districts

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Electronically referring patients to public outpatient services is about to get a whole lot easier in New South Wales with the expansion of its Engage Outpatients digital referral management solution to Local Health Districts (LHDs).

NSW Health’s Engage Outpatients Electronic Referral Management System (eRMS) and HealthLink’s SmartForm and Secure Messaging Technology will be rolling out to lead sites at LHDs. Following this initial installation, the SmartForm solution will be expanding to many GP referrers in NSW.

HealthLink and NSW Health have signed an agreement to begin a phased roll out of the transformative technology following successful trials in localised districts over the past few years.

HealthLink’s SmartForms and Secure Messaging Technology (used in practice management software such as Best Practice, Medical Director, Genie, Medtech, Zedmed and Shexie) will be utilised to support two-way electronic communications between referring doctors and NSW Health’s outpatient clinics for the initial submission and progress of outpatient referrals through the eRMS system.

As part of the eRMS expansion, NSW Health will develop 40 eReferral forms which will meet new state-wide Referral Criteria across key specialty areas. These will be automatically deployed to GP referrers as their outpatient clinics are onboarded to the eRMS across each new Local Health District (LHD).

There are 11,000 outpatient clinics across NSW. Outpatient and community health services are the largest area of clinical service delivery across NSW Health, providing more than 21 million outpatients services each year, and referrals are an essential and integral process in that service.

 

Benefits of electronic referrals

Electronic referrals save time, offer superior quality, increased accuracy, and certainty in delivery. They also ensure all necessary clinical and personal information is being safely and securely exchanged between different healthcare settings.

HealthLink chief operating officer Dave Young says HealthLink has a trusted relationship with vendors, GPs and NSW Health and it’s great to see the solution expanding state-wide.

“We support this ambitious move by NSW Health to create a state-wide digital capability for better health outcomes. We’re delighted to be playing an important role in the evolution of referral management across the state.”

There are thousands of NSW Hospital outpatient clinics and general practices that will be able to take advantage of the technology, which uses Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) as the standard to exchange communication between NSW Health and external healthcare providers.

The NSW Health eRMS will centralise all referral data and referral modes (electronic, fax, paper, phone and walk-ins) collected by, and sent to, NSW Health LHDs in a single, accessible store, reducing and removing the reliance on paper-based referral records.

HealthLink’s national manager of health services Jean-Christophe Meunier says the state-wide roll out will have a massively positive impact.

“The result is huge business efficiency gains and time-savings for both external referrers and NSW public hospital outpatient clinics, as well as facilitating a fantastic customer experience for patients who are transferred into NSW public hospitals via the eReferral process.”

HealthLink CEO Mike Weiss says this is another example of HealthLink making health connections easy for a better healthcare experience for health providers, patients, and families.

HealthLink is part of Clanwilliam, a wide network of healthcare enterprises across the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and India, working collectively to create safer, more efficient and better healthcare for everyone.

 

For more information contact:

Maggie McNaughton

Clanwilliam Australia and New Zealand publicist

maggie@healthycomms.co.nz

(0064) 021 613198


Dictate.IT Attends Primary Care and Public Health 2023

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Dictate.IT attended Primary Care and Public Health 2023 at the NEC Birmingham, on Wednesday 17th – Thursday 18th May 2023.

This was Dictate.IT’s first year attending Primary Care and Public Health, the UK’s leading event for NHS and private clinicians working in primary and community care. 2023 was the shows 31st year and the theme was Showcasing Innovation and Best Practice in Primary and Community Care.

Visitors to the Dictate.IT stand had the chance to try the speech recognition solution for themselves, plus a chance to win a Fortum & Mason hamper worth £140 or 2 months of the speech recognition solution completely free.

Dictate.IT was extremely honoured to be awarded ‘Best Small Stand’ by the event organisers on the second day of the show, with the win being credited to the stand design and upbeat manner of the Dictate.IT team members.

We couldn’t be happier with how our first year at Primary Care and Public Health went – we met lots of clinicians that are struggling with the growing administration burden faced by healthcare teams. It was a pleasure to show them a genuine solution to some of these challenges. It was also a real surprise to win Best Small Stand, we were all very proud.

Siobhan Moll, UK Marketing Manager, Clanwilliam

10 Things to Consider When Implementing Speech Recognition at Your Practice

Posted on by Lauren Turner

As speech recognition becomes more popular within general practice, it can be hard to know what to look for when selecting a solution. Whichever solution you decide to use, make sure you consider these 10 important factors ahead of implementation.

  1. Integration: The speech recognition solution you choose should be compatible with any existing systems in use within the Practice, from the clinical system (like EMIS or SystmOne) to Microsoft programmes like Word and Outlook.
  2. Hardware: Some speech recognition solutions will require specific hardware, which may require additional cost and time to implement throughout the Practice. It may be more efficient to select a solution that can be used with existing microphones, foot pedals and headsets. If you don’t have existing hardware, select a solution that comes with a mobile app that can utilise the phone’s microphone.
  3. Accuracy: Trial the speech recognition solution for at least a couple of weeks before you commit to a purchase. The solution should have accuracy rates above 98%, especially for medical terminology. It should also have the ability to understand all accents, so make sure you test out the solution on a variety of different team members.
  4. Costs: It’s important to get more than one quote and compare ‘hidden’ costs, such as upgrades, hardware (as mentioned above), training and ongoing support. Another consideration is exactly who you have to pay to have access to the solution – at Dictate.IT we only charge for clinical users, for example.
  5. Word of mouth: Find out what other Practices are using, or ask potential solution providers for contact details of existing customers that you can speak to.
  6. Usability: Practice staff are busy enough without needing to spend hours understanding the quirks of a new system. An intuitive, user-friendly solution will also ensure maximum buy-in across the Practice. Equally, you don’t want the solution to be so basic that it’s not useful – check for helpful workflow features, such as canned text and voice navigation.
  7. Training: Not only should you receive training on how to use the product, but it’s important to understand how much voice training is required before the speech recognition is accurate. Some providers, like Dictate.IT, require no voice training.
  8. Access: Solutions can either be server- or cloud-based, so consider which would suit your Practice the best. Server-based will likely only be accessible from one computer in one location, which might not be appropriate for GP’s that work from more than one Practice. Cloud-based solutions can be accessed from anywhere using a login via a web browser.
  9. Security: Any solution that you implement within your Practice should comply with NHS security standards and ensure that patient data is safe and secure.
  10. How to best spend all the time you’ll be saving!

People Make Clanwilliam: Georgia’s information security project

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Georgia Hodgson, Test QA for Bluespier, explains why leading a information security project was a great professional development opportunity, what to expect from an ISO audit, and how the journey to certification resulted in some surprising internal culture changes.

Bluespier products are used by healthcare professionals in over 40 NHS Trusts and hospitals, serving millions of patients across the U.K.  The NHS is demanding more from their technology suppliers in regards to data security, and an ISO 27001 certification is becoming an increasingly mandatory standard for software supplied to the NHS.

“At first, leading the project was a bit daunting,” said Georgia.  “As a healthcare tech product it’s so important for us that customers have complete trust in how we handle and look after their data so it was crucial the accreditation process went smoothly.”

“I’ve always had an interest in information security, but to know that  our leadership team trusted and supported me to deliver on this was a huge confidence boost and professional development opportunity for me.”

To begin, Georgia attended an ISO accreditation training course, to obtain crucial training and learning around the details, the approach and what to expect from the audit.  She also had access to the Clanwilliam ISO network, which included colleagues who had already been through the process, to ask questions and share experiences.

“That training and network was invaluable. It became clear that this is not just an information security piece but a cultural piece – my role was to guide the process but the end result is that whole team needs to be equally responsible for self-auditing and thinking ‘ISO’ in every project we do.”

The comprehensive audit itself was rigorous, with the team undergoing six months of self-assessment against a certification test plan, followed by a detailed audit by the certification body.

Georgia explains; “Information security spans so much and a project like this really helps to focus your policies and procedures around actual real life examples.  We were tested on anything from how you’d maintain business continuity if you couldn’t access the office unexpectedly – which actually did happen to us one time when the key broke in the lock!! – to the steps if there is a patient data breach, how to correctly version and provide robust audit trails, and everything that helps maintain structured, proactive data safety.”

In December 2022, Bluespier was awarded its accreditation – joining three other Clanwilliam accredited product lines, Dictate IT, Informatica and Medisec. Clanwilliam can provide further assurance to its NHS customers that their data, and the data of their patients, is managed to the highest of standards.  But the work doesn’t stop there.

“Now it’s about living out our procedures and processes and ensuring we’re keeping data security at the front of our minds at all times so our customers have one less thing to worry about,” says Georgia.  “It’s made us work better as a team and as a software partner as we have such confidence in our approach – our culture has completely shifted and we work together in a completely different way which has been an unexpected by exciting output!”

“It’s a really proud moment to see processes that I’ve helped shape working in real life.”

Bluespier is part of Clanwilliam, serving our UK portfolio of healthcare customers.  The clinically driven software suite helps to transform and modernise workflows in theatres, pre-operative clinics, virtual clinics and stock management in NHS Trusts and hospitals.  To read more about how Bluespier’s products are transforming clinical care in theatres and beyond, visit: www.bluespier.com

Looking to move to tablets within Theatres? What are the Challenges?

Posted on by Lauren Turner

The NHS Digital Transformation Long-Term Plan lists giving “health and care staff the technology they need to help them complete administrative tasks more quickly, freeing up time to spend with patients” as one of their key objectives.

Flexible, mobile working within NHS Trusts has never been more important, both to help clinician efficiency and to align with NHS Digital Transformation objectives. Here at Bluespier we recognise and support these objectives whilst understanding how complicated mobile working might seem to implement within a Trust environment.

We know that NHS staff require these improvements in technology to help bridge the gap between true electronic data capture and efficient patient care. But the answer is more complicated than just implementing new software – Trusts need support to unblock obstacles like poor Wi-Fi signals in Theatres, a lack of investment in technology infrastructure and staff having no access to mobile devices.

There isn’t a fast solution or ‘silver bullet’ to solving these issues – we work with Trusts every day who are just starting their journey to becoming more mobile. There are cultural considerations, like engaging key staff, and investment challenges that require detailed business plans. But the long-term benefits of removing blockers and investing in technology are well worth it. Trusts that go paperless can recognise huge savings.

It’s thanks to our years of experience of supplying Trusts and working with them to resolve these issues that we developed Bluespier Mobile. It enables your Trust to utilise real-time data in a way that can further transform theatre processes and improve patient care. By equipping key theatre team members with Bluespier Mobile-enabled iPads, they can complete WHO checklists at the patient bedside, update scheduling information and view patient tracking details in real-time.

We can work with your Trust to overcome obstacles and help recognise cost-related benefits realisation of mobile working. If you already have Bluespier Theatres at your Trust, adding Bluespier Mobile is the next step in efficiency, patient care improvements and digital transformation.

Dictate.IT Attends P4H Scotland

Posted on by Lauren Turner

Dictate.IT attended P4H Scotland at the EICC on 19th April 2023. P4H Scotland connects buyers and suppliers across the Scottish healthcare supply chain.

Visitors to the Dictate.IT stand were able to try the speech recognition solution for themselves and understand how speech recognition solutions assist clinicians and support teams across secondary care settings.

P4H Scotland was a great opportunity for us to speak to Scottish procurement teams within the NHS, getting to know their challenges and focuses for the year ahead.

Faiza Saleem, Sales Director, Dictate.IT

“We make Clanwilliam a brilliant place to work by encouraging our people to bring their real selves to work.”

Posted on by Lauren Turner

As Chief People Officer for Clanwilliam, Tara’s mission is to ensure our People are able to ‘bring their best selves and be their full selves’ at work.  She plays an instrumental role in driving the talent and corporate culture strategies across Clanwilliam, bringing together diverse teams across three continents. 

With the healthcare technology group expanding year by year, Tara talks about some of her key focuses, including recognition initiatives that really work and embedding values as a performance measure.

Continue reading ““We make Clanwilliam a brilliant place to work by encouraging our people to bring their real selves to work.””

Coming Soon: Our Fully Integrated Patient Portal

Posted on by Lauren Turner

We want to make payments as smooth as possible for our customers so we are delighted to announce our new partnership with Billink.

Billink to make payments in clinical practice easier by focusing relentlessly on simplifying both sides of any transaction. They do this by making it easier for practice staff members to create and manage payments while also making it exceptionally easy for any patient to pay their practice.

In the Billink Dashboard you can now toggle a setting on/off that will automatically send your patients a reminder text message if they have not paid you after 24 hours from the initial Billink being sent. Research shows that text messages achieve a 98% open rate on average and reminders have been shown to result in faster payments to your practice. This feature has now been activated by default. It can deactivate/reactivate this feature any time from inside your Billink dashboard.

All Billink users receive a weekly insights report along with the remittance report. We use the insights report to summarise how well your practice is using Billink compared to the network average as well as listing the patients who still owe the practice fees from outstanding Billink payments from the previous week.

And the claims of ‘I never got that’ are now officially a thing of the past! Billink has added in functionality that allows you to see exactly when the message was sent, viewed and paid by the patient. You will also be able to see these details for all resent Billink and automatic reminders.