E-Ref - An Overview

Introduction
E-Ref is a project established to facilitate secure electronic referral between providers of primary care services to the Home and Community Care (HACC) target group in the Coastal Planning Area of South East Melbourne.

Put simply, the process involves service providers selecting a client from the clinical/client information system they currently use, then using a couple of menu items to place referral data in a Word (or similar) document which is then sent as an attachment to an email message. The process varies depending on the information system in use in each agency/service.

The initial E-Ref project, which ran from June to December 1999, developed a simple electronic system for managing referrals between, GPs local government, RDNS, hospital based community health services, linkages, aged care assessment team and a community health centre.
(Download a copy of the December 1999, E-Ref Stage One Report)

The project has now received additional funding under the HACC Program to consolidate the significant progress made during the first stage of the trial. The key areas being addressed in Stage 2 (July to December 2000) are:

• Implementing data security processes
• Making some amendments to existing client management software to facilitate the client referrals process
• Adding to the number of participants, and
• Streamlining the processes for supporting and maintaining the system

Security Infrastructure

E-Ref has opted to use email as the basis for sending and receiving referrals, and will use Public Key Technology (PKT) for securing the information as it flows over the internet. E-Ref will use the secure technology provided under the e-MediSafe project, which is consistent with the Commonwealth Government's Gatekeeper Strategy.

The central registration and certification infrastructure put in place for the e-MediSafe project will be used and smart cards that attach to USB or serial ports and TrustedMIME software will be installed for individual users. (TrustedMIME is a "plug-in" to the Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes clients. TrustedMIME works inside these clients in a transparent manner and does not interfere with the normal operation of sending and receiving unsecured mail).

Clinical/Client Management Systems

E-Ref participants use a variety of clinical/client systems. All the General Practitioners use Medical Director, whilst systems used by other participants include Care Manager 2000, SWITCH32, Sharakat Khoo. As part of the E-Ref project, various adjustments are being made to some of these systems to facilitate the generation of a referral document that can be emailed.

Contacts

Nancy Norton
Chair of the Project Steering Committee
C/- Bayside Community Options
Level 1/1001 Nepean Highway
Moorabbin Vic
Ph: (03) 9532-1235
Email: nancy@baysideoptions.com.au

Tim McMahon
Project Consultant
Reporting Solutions Pty Ltd
Ph: 03 9817 5994
Mob: 0412 394 368
Email: tmcmahon@repsol.com.au