Effective April 1, 2024, primary care providers and surgeons are required to use eReferrals to support access to surgical consults and those diagnostic imaging services available in the tool. View Memo and Frequently Asked Questions.
There are five key steps Surgeon Offices must take for each eReferral received. View Memo and Printable Resource.
About eReferrals
As part of Nova Scotia Health's Surgical Access and Quality Improvement Strategy, a single-entry model (SEM) for managing and coordinating surgical consult referrals in Nova Scotia launched March 31, 2023. The model is supported by an eReferral tool (Ocean eReferrals) and Central Intake Office and allows for referrals to both Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health surgeons.
Providers can simply select the service their patient requires and refer to the NSH / IWK Central Intake, or an Orthopedic Assessment Clinic for primary joint replacement referrals, to be directed based on their patients' preferences, or can refer to their provider of choice from the comprehensive directory.
If patient's give verbal consent to be emailed, their email address can be provided along with their eReferral, allowing them to receive updates on their referral, saving physicians and administrative staff valuable time spent following up on queries.
This initiative is also among the priorities and commitments in government's Action for Health Strategic Plan and will support efforts to improve access to surgical care, reduce wait times and improve the overall experiences of our patients.
The Ocean tool supporting surgical eReferrals, is also being used to support the new Diagnostic-Imaging eRequisition Model. eReferrals for MRIs launched on September 27 and expanded to include eReferrals for ultrasounds December 6, 2023. Planning for the launch of CT is ongoing.
Help and Support:
- In-person training and support is available at www.referralsns.ca/contact-us
- Visit our Nova Scotia eReferral Resource Hub for training guides, videos, tip sheets, contacts, Frequently Asked Questions, Ocean eReferrals Tutorials and more.
- View the recording from our June 28, 2024 Quality and Patient Safety Round
- View the recording or presentation from our pre-launch Webinar with DNS.
Benefits:
For Patients
- Improved communication about consult status / what to expect
- Continued choice / more informed choice (wait times, etc.)
- More equitable access to services
- Help reduce waits for consults
- Timely triage to prioritize care
For Providers
- Consistent and complete referrals
- Comprehensive / up-to-date surgeon registry
- Continued choice by referrer
- Confirmation of referrals and updates on referral status
- Helps surgeons build practices, supporting recruitment / retention
System Benefits
- Access to consult queue data to better plan and allocate resources
- More consistency and coordination
- Opportunities to better distribute demand across system
Provider engagement
We recognize you may have questions or feedback regarding what this could mean for your practice and patients. We are committed to working with referring providers, surgeons, patient representatives and others to explore options, answer your questions and find the approaches that will work best for our patients and health care teams.
How can you get involved and stay informed?
- Join our Surgeon advisory team to offer ongoing feedback. Participation may involve attending periodic meetings or provider asynchronous feedback. Email us to learn more: Perioperative.Services@nshealth.ca
- Provider surveys: Surveys were open to surgeons and referring providers in the summer of 2022. These were aimed at helping us understand how referrals are now submitted / managed and to seek provider perspectives related to this initiative. You can view a high level summary of results here. The compiled responses were shared with the project steering committee and working groups to support planning.
- Learn more or offer feedback:
- Visit our Nova Scotia Referral Resource Hub - www.referralsNS.ca
- SUBSCRIBE to Perioperative Network Highlights for regular updates on the Surgical Access and Quality Improvement Strategy, Single Entry Access Model and other Perioperative Services initiatives and topics
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