Tasmania’s referral system has been significantly improved, making it faster, more efficient, and easier for clinicians to communicate with patients.
The state-wide eReferrals system has now been implemented across all four major hospitals.
There is now one integrated system that General Practitioners can use to refer patients to public outpatient services, including specialists and allied health professionals consulting privately.
This new integrated system replaces the need for faxes, emails, printed and scanned written referrals. It allows referrals to be submitted via a secure platform and notifies GPs instantly of receipt of the referral from the specialist service or clinic.
It also allows GPs to be kept up to date with the progress of their patient’s referral as they occur.
Premier and Minister for Health, Jeremy Rockliff, said the completion of the eReferrals implementation has already resulted in faster, more efficient referral processes and improved communication between specialists and GPs.
“It will also improve patient safety and outcomes by providing more timely care, higher quality referrals, and more secure transmission of patient information,” Premier Rockliff.
“We have already hit a milestone of 10,000 digital eReferrals received through the system, and I encourage all General Practitioners to get on board and utilise the new integrated system in their practices.
The eReferral project forms part of the Tasmanian Liberal Government’s $475 million 10-year Digital Health Transformation which will deliver a new state-wide fully integrated care platform that will enable our hospitals, GPs, community health, allied health, and other specialist providers to seamlessly communicate and share information with each other.
“This transformation will deliver a range of benefits for patients, including improved communications and reduced waiting time for services. It will also help prevent unnecessary hospital visits,” Premier Rockliff said.
“Upgrading our digital technologies will also benefit our health professionals by providing them with the right data, in the right place, at the right time to enable them to make the best decisions on patient care.”
View the Digital Health Transformation – Improving Patient Outcomes Overview here.
