On April 1, 2024, use of eReferrals became mandatory for in-scope services and providers. View Memo.
What does this mean?
- Primary care providers and surgeons are now required to use eReferrals to send and / or receive surgical referrals and referrals for the Diagnostic Imaging services available in the tool.
- All Diagnostic Imaging staff, including radiologists, were already expected to actively triage requisitions received via the eReferral tool for MRIs and ultrasounds - and will continue to do so as other DI modalities are brought online.
- REMINDERS:
- Please refer to the clinical alerts that appear on eReferral forms to determine whether an eReferral is the appropriate referral pathway based on the urgency of the referral.
- Primary care providers are not expected to use eReferrals outside their practices, including when they are providing care to patients in long term care facilities or emergency departments, or working as internal medicine specialists or in other capacities.
What if I still need to be onboarded or trained to use eReferrals?
- Teams continue to travel across the province to offer support to primary care providers and surgeon offices with onboarding and training.
- Our teams are reaching out directly to providers who are not yet onboarded to offer in-person support and those who have completed the initial set-up are also being contacted to offer virtual training support.
- In some cases, users have encountered technical issues or configuration challenges that we are working with them to help resolve.
- If you are a primary care provider or surgeon and your office and has not yet completed onboarding to the eReferrals tool, or accessed training supports, it is vital that you request support now at: https://www.referralsns.ca/contact-us.
- Diagnostic Imaging team members can access information on training resources and supports here.
Who has access to the eReferrals tool?
Access is currently provided to primary care providers, surgeons, and diagnostic imaging (DI) teams. More specifically, this includes:
- Primary care providers as senders
- Surgeons as senders and receivers
- Diagnostic Imaging teams as receivers
If you are not a primary care provider, surgeon, or Diagnostic Imaging team member, and were onboarded earlier in the roll-out process, we apologize for the confusion.
What services are included in the eReferrals tool?
The eReferrals tool is used to submit surgical referrals and referrals for the Diagnostic Imaging Services currently available in the tool (MRI and Ultrasound). All other services are out of scope currently.
Will there be exceptions?
To help realize the many expected benefits of eReferrals, it is important that as many users as possible routinely and optimally use eReferrals to send referrals for surgery and the included DI modalities. We do however recognize that some providers are seeking to be excluded and have valid reasons for these requests. A narrow set of circumstances may warrant exclusions and we are managing these situations on a case-by-case basis as part of our follow-up with in-scope providers.
Where can I learn more?
- Visit our Nova Scotia eReferral Resource Hub for training guides, videos, tip sheets, contacts, Frequently Asked Questions, Ocean eReferrals Tutorials and more.
- View a Tutorial Session Recording, learn about eReferrals Enhancements, Request In-Person Support or Contact Us for help with Ocean.
- View testimonials from patients and users.
- View our eReferrals video.
