Tasmanian eReferral system

Introduction
Primary Health Tasmania is working with the Tasmanian Health Service and Department of Health to establish a single system to support electronic patient referral – otherwise known as eReferral – across primary care and into hospital outpatients.
eReferral project overview
Research conducted by Primary Health Tasmania identified low awareness of available referral pathways among providers and a lack of standard tools to support electronic communication between providers.
The eReferral project will make it easier for Tasmania’s primary healthcare providers to send, receive and navigate electronic correspondence in the interest of delivering more efficient and appropriate patient care.
What is eReferral?
eReferrals are a way to send secure, electronic referral communication between primary health care providers, hospitals, specialists and allied health practitioners.
eReferral will be seamlessly integrated into existing general practice clinical software packages (Best Practice and Medical Director). Services without this software can access referrals via one of two secure web portals (hospital or primary care provider).
Benefits
eReferral is a superior platform for encrypted electronic communication. eReferral uses smart forms to offer enhanced features not available in secure messaging.
This integrated tool will allow:
- standardisation and centralisation of referral templates
- easy access to information on appropriate referral pathways
- secure and timely transmission of referral information across the entire spectrum of health care services.
eReferral proof of concept
The first stage of the eReferral project is a proof of concept. This will provide an opportunity to test the system from a technical, usability and outcome perspective.
The proof of concept of the system commenced in April 2020 and will continue into early 2021.
Key partnerships
Primary Health Tasmania is working in close partnership with the Tasmanian Department of Health and Tasmanian Health Service to build an eReferral system for Tasmania.
HealthLink, in partnership with Health Care Software, was chosen as the successful candidate to develop the eReferral solution and support the proof of concept.
Participating Services
General Practices
eReferral is available to all computerised general practices in Tasmania.
Tasmanian Health Service
Tasmanian Health Services which can accept eReferral are:
- Royal Hobart Hospital - Cardiology
- Royal Hobart Hospital - Gastroenterology
- Launceston General Hospital - Renal
Specialists, Allied Health & Community Health
HealthLink eReferral SmartForms can be used to refer to the following Specialists, Allied Health & Community Health services:
- Anglicare Tasmania
- Body System
- Charles Clinic
- Consultant Pharmacy Services (CPS)
- Diabetes Tasmania
- Hobart Chiropractic
Quick reference guides on how to refer to these services are available by clicking on the bullet points listed or in the Document Library.
Upcoming events
- February 2021
Final evaluation activities for the eReferral Proof of Concept