One million e-referrals submitted
Electronic referrals in the South Island have reached a new milestone, with the one millionth referral submitted under the Electronic Request Management System (ERMS).
Pegasus Health has been a key partner in developing and implementing ERMS. It has also provided support to South Island practices over the five-plus years since the platform was introduced by Canterbury District Health Board.
Pegasus Health’s Chief Information Officer Symon McHerron says the system has now been implemented in every district, across the South Island. The one millionth e-referral was submitted in March 2016.
“ERMS is a great demonstration of how organisations can come together to provide technology that will support more efficient services and communication between them,” Symon says.
“The platform provides easy-to-use, secure electronic referral forms for most services listed on Canterbury Community HealthPathways. Previously, GPs would find a referral form on their computer, print it off, fill it in and fax it to the service.”
E-referrals are less likely to get lost because they are processed by one system, Symon says. Another benefit is that the directory of services is centrally managed, which means information is kept up-to-date without each provider having to do it.
“Through ERMS, we are continuing to work on replacing faxes going to private providers. These efforts will also benefit GPs who receive referrals from colleagues for special interest services.”
Symon says the next step for ERMS is to offer GPs more information about the status of their e-referral. This will be done in conjunction with the public hospitals’ electronic triage system project.