The Parkville precinct hospitals (including the Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Royal Children’s Hospital, the Royal Women’s Hospital, and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre) have commenced an eReferral implementation project with HealthLink.
It is the tenth Victorian hospital group to implement the solution – replacing legacy fax-based workflows with fully digital, secure, and integrated referral pathways.
With a catchment of more than one million people, HealthLink says the rollout scheduled to go live in early 2027 represents a major step in improving the consistency, security, and efficiency of referral pathways across the Parkville precinct hospitals.
Referencing Victorian State-wide Referral Criteria, Specialty Criteria, and localised criteria, the initiative is backed by HealthLink’s extensive experience deploying eReferral solutions across Victoria.
For the Parkville precinct, the new platform will integrate directly with GPs’ practice management software, including demographic data, medical history, medications and alerts which are auto-populated to streamline referral creation.
For GPs, this means:
• Seamless integration with Best Practice, Medical Director Clinical, Medical Director Helix, Genie, Medtech, Zedmed, Shexie, Communicare, MyHealthLink Portal and more software systems via HealthLink SmartForms;
• Secure electronic transmission directly into the Parkville precinct shared EMR;
• Reduction in lost referrals, delays and duplications; and
• Consistent statewide and national experience, with HealthLink SmartForms already used for Victorian Hospital and Community
Health services, My Aged Care, Medicare Mental Health, Hearing Australia, Lifehouse Cancer Centre, Cervin S&R Private Specialist Referrals, and Transport for NSW Fitness-to-Drive assessments.
With HealthLink’s acquisition of long-time messaging provider Argus, the organisation has also ensured continuity and support for referrers across the Parkville precinct who have all transitioned to receiving Hospital discharge summaries and other correspondence via HealthLink’s new digital platform.
HealthLink National Manager Jean-Christophe Meunier said, “A lot of hard work, dedication and trust goes into supporting GPs with a comprehensive digital service. Our goal for hospitals has always been to enable a consistent, auditable and easy-to-use eReferral exchange service from the safety of the GP electronic medical record system.
“It’s important we remain laser focused and build upon this step change in digital infrastructure and referral workflow across Parkville to deliver the best possible healthcare experience for patients and clinicians alike.”
Parkville precinct eReferral Project Manager Fiona McCormack said the project represented an exciting step forward for the Parkville precinct, “streamlining the referral process for general practitioners and specialists who regularly connect with our hospitals. It provides a valuable opportunity to fully digitise referral workflows and enable direct submissions into our shared electronic medical record system.
“By receiving referrals in real time, we can reduce administrative burden and shorten the time it takes for patients to access care,” she said.
HealthLink has delivered multiple SmartForm eReferral systems across Victoria starting almost a decade ago in 2017, with Austin Health, Eastern Health, and others.
Disclaimer: HealthLink and Pulse+IT are both part of Lanas.
Add Comment