Tasmanian eReferral System

About the Tasmanian eReferral system

eReferrals are a way to send secure electronic referral communication between primary healthcare providers, hospitals, specialists and allied health practitioners.

They can improve the quality and efficiency of the referral process by reducing delays, errors, and duplication.

Primary Health Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government Department of Health have partnered to bring an eReferral system to Tasmania. The system uses HealthLink Smart Forms for primary care users, linking to the referral management system for public hospitals.

The eReferral system is available to all primary care organisations and primary care eReferral usage costs are paid for by Primary Health Tasmania and the Tasmanian Department of Health in a cost sharing arrangement.

Rollout progress to date

Stage 1 rollout of the eReferral system has now been completed across Tasmania with outpatient services across all public hospitals and more than 85% of non-GP medical specialist organisations across the state onboarded.

In June 2023, monthly referrals sent across the Tasmanian health system totalled 5,421 with 3,573 of those to public hospital outpatient services and the remainder to private primary care providers. This exceeds our 3-year monthly usage target in less than a year.

The cumulative total of eReferrals sent as of 31 March 2024 was just shy of 80,000.

For more usage stats, please visit the 'Hear all about it' tab below where we will post regular usage updates.

What's next?

Primary Health Tasmania and the Tasmanian Department of Health are now moving into stage 2 of the eReferral system rollout.

In stage 2, the Department of Health project team will focus on:

• expanding the system to further outpatient departments and Tasmanian Health System services
• introducing Statewide Referral Criteria into outpatient service templates, and
• continuing to respond to user feedback to improve usability of hospital referral templates.

Primary Health Tasmania will focus on:

• continuing to increase awareness and use of the eReferral system by GPs and non-GP medical specialists
• supporting integration of HealthLink Smartforms into Communicare and Medical Director Helix
• working with HealthLink to further develop the system to improve usability for allied health organisations, and
• capturing feedback from primary care users and working with the Tas DOH and HealthLink to improve the system.

Progress and further information about are available in the eReferral Stage 2 rollout progress tracker to the right.

How to navigate this site

To the right you can find:

• rollout progress information
• useful documents and links with more detailed information, and
• information on how to contact the eReferral team or request a demo session for your organisation.

In the section below you can find:

• news and updates about the system
• information about the key benefits of eReferrals
• information about upcoming enhancements
• a feedback and suggestions form.