E-Referral coming to RPAH maternity

23 March, 2022

Sydney Local Health District is pleased to be a demonstrator site for the eHealth NSW Engage Outpatients pilot. Engage Outpatients will change the management of referrals, triage and appointment scheduling in NSW Health hospitals through the capture of e-Referrals, fax digitisation and transcription and scanning of paper based referrals into an integrated Referral Management platform that allows for referral acknowledgement, online triage and outcome notification to both referrer and the patient/carer.

 Launching at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Women’s and Babies service in late April 2022 General Practitioners will be able to use HealthLink SmartForms from their practice software or the HealthLink portal to launch e-Referrals to the following services:

• RPAH Fertility
• RPAH Gynaecology
• RPAH Maternity

For General Practitioners without Best Practice, Genie or Medical Director practice systems Referrals can be lodged using the HealthLink portal or submitted by fax using a new fax coversheet which enables digitisation of your faxed referral.

What’s changing?

Over the coming weeks more specific information and resources will be made available to General Practice supporting the following changes to referring and managing Referrals for RPAH Women’s & Babies services:

Being introduced

• A move to HealthLink SmartForms for referrals to Fertility, Gynaecology & Maternity at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
• New Fax coversheet to be used for all referrals to the three services for GPs who are not e-Referral enabled or downtime
• New fax number for Gynaecology referrals
• Templated Fax coversheets to be available for upload to Best Practice & Medical Director via CESPHN
• Fax digitization of referrals using the new coversheet
• A new Referral Management and scheduling platform at the clinic end to manage all e-Referrals, faxes and paper referrals in one place
• GP confirmations of receipt and triage outcomes
• SMS and email patient notification of referral progress

Being removed/changed

• Removal of online first appointment booking form
• Removal of online referral form
• Move away from paper-based referrals and walk-in referrals

For more information on E-Referrals to RPAH Women’s and Babies as well as other SLHD service please contact the SLHD GP e-Referral Project Team on:  0459 885 531, or 0477 735 472 or email: SLHD-EReferralProject@health.nsw.gov.au