Whanganui does eReferral with ERMS

eHealthNews.nz: Clinical Software

Monday, 29 November 2021

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

ERMS The electronic referral system used for millions of referrals across the South Island has gone live at Whanganui DHB (WDHB).

Whanganui became the first North Island DHB to adopt the Electronic Referral Management System (ERMS) in October.

ERMS is used by all health boards and a range of other health providers in the South Island. It allows patients to be electronically referred to professionals such as hospital specialists, physiotherapists or midwives and contains all the information needed to understand the care required.

Whanganui implemented a two-week trial in October that involved general practices sending electronic referrals to a triaging station at the hospital and nearly 600 referrals have been made using the system. The remaining 14 general practices in the district will all be using the system by early December.

Ken Young is a GP at the Bulls Medical Centre and describes ERMS as easy to use and logical.

“I have been able to access everything I want to and refer patients easily,” says Young.

“It’s great to have a simple reference pathway and has the potential to make things so much better and easier for us and patients.”

Whanganui DHB chief medical officer Ian Murphy says the DHB needed an established and proven solution that could be stood up within a very short timeframe and enable a smooth transition for the GP practices.

“With ERMS, the level of change management for both sides (referrer and receiver) has been minimal. This has meant easy adoption and buy-in,’’ he says.

Referrals are consistent in appearance, making information easy to locate and the referrers know that their submitted referrals have been received, he says.

Whanganui DHB district nurse clinical manager Mary Stanford says ERMS means that district nurses get all the information they need in a standardised form, reducing the need for follow-up calls to GPs.

“It’s made a big difference as a lot of what we used to get just didn’t have the information that was required,” she says.

District nurses have not had to change their workflow and can turn round referrals faster with the new system.

ERMS product manager Joanna Jordan says the team is working with WDHB on next steps for early 2022 – the integration of ERMS into the hospital radiology system, its patient administration system and, eventually, all inbound referrals into the health board.

“Due to the experience and insights our ERMS team have gained over more than 10 years as an integral part of the South Island health system, we were pleased to be able to advise and guide the WDHB through a short implementation phase,” she says.