Electronic Referrals

A new statewide digital referral management solution is being introduced to improve the referral experience of patients, referrers and clinicians in outpatient services.

Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) has partnered with HealthLink to enable electronic referrals (eReferrals) to be sent to WSLHD outpatient services. An eReferral is an electronic document that can be sent electronically from one health care service to another, designed to be more sustainable than the current process of faxing or posting referrals. 

The electronic referral management system has been designed and built in a collaboration between WSLHD, eHealth NSW, the Ministry of Health and representatives from across the state.

HealthLink eReferrals

HealthLink eReferrals will allow primary care general practitioners, specialists, nurses and allied health professionals to efficiently send secure eReferrals to clinics across the Western Sydney Local Health District. They are designed to enhance the triage and health management of a patient’s journey, improve patient safety, and reduce specialist outpatient wait times.

Users can benefit from capabilities such as pre-population, field validation and consistency checks, conditional visibility, intuitive layout, track referrals, and the ability to save and return to the draft referral later.

WSLHD Services with Access to HealthLink eReferral

Currently, the Gynaecology, Gastroenterology and Liver outpatient clinics at Blacktown Hospital only accept referrals received through the HealthLink eReferral platform. The following services in Blacktown Hospital will receive the following HealthLink eReferrals:

Gastroenterology – see Western Sydney HealthPathways:

Hepatology – see Western Sydney HealthPathways:

A password is required to access HealthPathways. If you don’t have the login details, please contact our HealthPathways team at healthpathways@wentwest.com.au or call 8811 7100.

Gynaecology – see Western Sydney HealthPathways:

A password is required to access HealthPathways. If you don’t have the login details, please contact our HealthPathways team at healthpathways@wentwest.com.au or call 8811 7100.

On 31 July 2024, the WSLHD Chronic Pain outpatient service will only accept eReferrals.

On 14 August 2024, the following WSLHD Women’s Health outpatient services will only accept eReferrals:

  • Antenatal services
  • Gynaecology services

Setting up HealthLink in Your Practice

HealthLink eReferrals can be integrated within the following software programs:

  • Best Practice
  • Genie
  • Medical Director
  • Medtech Evolution
  • Shexie Platinum
  • Zedmed

From these software programs, users can select a form, automatically pre-populate data from the electronic patient record, have it validated, send it securely to the intended recipient and receive a receipt electronically. A copy of the form will also be automatically stored securely in the patient’s record.

Practices using these systems can integrate HealthLink for free. Alternatively, you can use MyHealthLink Portal.

Registration

If you do not have a HealthLink Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) account, please complete the HealthLink Service Application form.

HealthLink help and support

For HealthLink queries or technical support, please contact HealthLink Help and Support via:

HealthLink tutorials and user guides

HealthLink has provided video tutorials and user guides to help practice staff integrate HealthLink with their practice management system. These resources can be found on the HealthLink website.

Frequently Asked Questions

eReferrals were introduced in response to GP feedback that the existing referral processes were too time consuming. In particular, fax referrals take longer to process, which results in patients waiting longer to be referred for assessment. eReferrals are integrated with existing practice management systems and pre-populate available patient data.

To send an eReferral, simply check the patient details, enter information about their needs and add any necessary attachments to support an assessment. This makes eReferrals the quickest and easiest way to refer patients to WSLHD services.

The introduction of eReferrals was established as a state-wide project through eHealth NSW to improve the quality and safety of referral processes, ease of use, avoid wastage and minimise patient delay in accessing ambulatory care services.

For Western Sydney Local Health District, eReferrals aims to play a role in transforming a patient’s transition from primary to secondary care by enabling referrals to be securely sent, reducing the reliance on legacy communication systems including fax.

General practitioners now receive a notification when the referral has been received by the WSLHD service, which gives them and their patients peace of mind, and reduces time with referrers no longer having to follow up or generate multiple referrals.

HealthLink eReferrals are available on:

  • Best Practice Lava SP3 and above 
  • Genie v8.8 and above 
  • MedicalDirector 3.16 and above 
  • Medtech Evolution 10.4.4 and above
  • Shexie Platinum
  • Zedmed

These practice management systems make up more than 80% of the general practice management system market in Australia.

For more information, please refer to HealthLink’s SmartForm Readiness Cheat Sheet.

You can send and receive eReferrals without a practice management system through MyHealthLink Portal.

MyHealthLink Portal is an online portal that enables smaller medical practices and individual health care providers to submit via a web browser.

MyHealthLink Portal is protected by digital certificates and advanced HealthLink security and backed by expert technical support from HealthLink. 

You can watch a tutorial video to learn about how MyHealthLink Portal works. 

If the patient is in a critical condition and requires urgent emergency medical care, call an ambulance and refer to the local hospital emergency department.

If the patient is stable but warrants urgent assessment, please visit the Western Sydney HealthPathways platform to locate health service contact details and make an urgent referral. In most instances, it is recommended to call the service before sending the referral.

To find a service for urgent situations on Western Sydney HealthPathways:

  1. Use the search bar at the top and enter ‘Urgent’
  2. Review the list of referral pages and select the relevant specialty
  3. Open the relevant drop-down lists to view the contact details and further advice on how to refer a patient urgently

A password is required to access HealthPathways. If you don’t have the login details, please contact our HealthPathways team at healthpathways@wentwest.com.au or call 8811 7100.

HealthLink eReferrals also contains an option to select ‘Urgent’.

If your submission has been successful, you will receive a notification at the top of the form confirming it has been sent.

If your submission is unsuccessful, an error message will appear. In this case, please either:

If it does fail, the information you already entered should be saved. To check for any outstanding referrals, you can access ‘parked’ forms and resume them. 

All practice management systems store eReferrals in an inbox or folder that you can refer back to.

The WSLHD eReferrals use end-to-end encryption to ensure privacy and security. Personal information and documents are retained securely within the WSLHD system.

By default, the form will load the minimum information required by WSLHD to create a record so that an assessment can be organised.

Anyone who currently has access to your practice management system will be able to access WSLHD eReferrals. Depending on how your practice management system is configured, it may be possible for practice nurses to submit an eReferral.

For more information about HealthLink and eReferrals, please visit the WSLHD website.

Feedback

If you have any feedback or suggestions about eReferrals, please complete the online feedback form.

 

This information is correct as of 17 July 2024.