Best Practice Software

Louis Valenti

Real Time Prescription Monitoring in Your State – Are You Ready?

by
RTPM In Your State article image

Real Time Prescription Monitoring (RTPM) is a clinical tool providing real-time monitored medicines prescription information for prescribers and pharmacists to support safer clinical decision-making.

The use of a Real Time Prescription Monitoring tool is mandatory in some states and it is important to check your state-based legislation to ensure you are complying with any requirements.

Currently, RTPM is available for Victorian, South Australian, Queensland and some New South Wales users of Bp Premier and BpVIP.net, with other states expected to come on board within the next 12-18 months.

For our New South Wales sites, the rollout of this initiative is starting in the Hunter New England and Central Coast regions from Monday 25 October 2021 and being rolled out into further regions early into 2022.

To access RTPM in an enabled state, users must be registered for eRx or MediSecure and have the functionality enabled via the User Preferences window in wither BpVIP.net or Bp Premier.

For further information about configuring RTPM at your Practice, visit the Bp Premier or Bp VIP.net Knowledge Base, or check out the below 3-minute clip highlighting the easy to configure steps.

Authored by:

RTPM in your state blog article image

Jessica White
Commercial and Customer Enablement Manager at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Bp Comms and Electronic Prescribing – A Perfect Match!

by
Bp Comms and Electronic Prescribing Article Blog Image

Want Some Great News?

The Department of Health (DoH) has announced an extension to their SMS subsidy funding for the electronic prescribing program until 2022!

So this means your practice can begin using eScripts and the cost is subsidised by the DoH. How exciting!

But, before you jump straight in, there is one very important step required to use electronic prescribing. Practices wanting to use the electronic prescribing program will need to sign up for Bp Comms to enable the functionality in Bp Premier.

What is Bp Comms?

If you’re new to Bp Comms, it combines the benefits of using Bp SMS and the Best Health App. Bp SMS has many features that will save you time and money:

  • Seamless integration into Bp Premier
  • Send Clinical Reminders effortlessly **
  • Send other clinical-related communications directly from the Inbox, Patient Record and Follow-Up Inbox **
  • Appointment reminders and replies to reduce “patient no shows”
  • Simple and easy to use functionality, whether sending single customised messages or bulk communications
  • Dedicated number available in Bp SMS, so patients can save it in their phone for ease of future use (applies to appointment reminders only)

** Available in Indigo SP1 or higher

How Do I Get Started?

It’s easy. Contact the friendly Best Practice sales team either by phone 1300 401 111 or email sales@bpsoftware.net to sign you up and enable Bp Comms and electronic prescribing at your practice.

Our team will take you through the process of signing up and purchasing Bp Comms credits to get started.

Bp Comms credits are flexible, tiered messaging packs with pricing starting from as low as 7 cents per message. The best part is that Bp SMS doesn’t have any subscription or annual fees! Bp Comms credits also never expire – so you’ll never find yourself in a position where you’re rushing to use your remaining messages!

There are a few steps to setting up Bp Comms and electronic prescribing for the first time in Bp Premier, but we’ve got you covered with full step-by-step articles on our Knowledge Base and Video Library

Where To From There?

Once you have Bp Comms enabled and your credits verified in your system, you can start setting up electronic prescribing. Be sure you don’t miss a step by accessing the suite of instructions on the Knowledge Base, which you can access from within Bp Premier by selecting Help > Online.

  1. Set up a Prescription Exchange Service (PES)

Whether it’s eRx or MediSecure, you will need to register and install a Prescription Exchange Service in Bp Premier.

  1. Enable Electronic Prescribing in Configuration

Follow our suite of enablement materials to configure eScript for your practice and doctors.

  1. Record Patient and Prescriber Information

Ensure each doctor’s prescribing details are recorded and set their preference to enable eScripts.

Record patient consent to receive eScripts in the Patient Demographic.

  1. Set the Patient’s Preferred Token Method

Lastly, confirm how the patient would like to receive their eScript token, whether by SMS, email or paper token.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you’re ready to start sending your eScripts!

*Conditions apply. Please refer to PBS for pharmacists – Electronic prescription fee – Services Australia for further information.

Additional Resources

Knowledge Base

Further information can be found on our Knowledge Base, which you can access from within Bp Premier by selecting Help > Online. Use the following search terms for relevant documentation on Bp Comms and Electronic Prescribing:

  • Set Up eRx Script Exchange
  • Electronic Prescribing
  • Frequently Asked Questions from Electronic Prescribing Masterclass

Vimeo Links

Authored by:

Belinda Blog Author Image

Belinda Bazant
Training Content Developer at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Spring Has Sprung – It’s Time For a Security Spring Clean!

by
Security Spring Cleaning Blog Article Image

Is It Time For a Security Spring Clean In Your Practice?

In 2019, Best Practice Software introduced the Bp Partner Network. The number one driver for this initiative was to improve secure access to Bp Software databases at our customer’s practices – for their safety and security and in turn, for the safety and privacy of their patients.

Since 2019, we have onboarded over 100 integrated third-party software solution vendors as Partners and we have worked hard to ensure they are businesses with appropriate privacy policies in place. Furthermore, Best Practice Software has activated role-based secure access mechanisms to ensure onboarded Partners only access the data and tables necessary to fulfill their permitted purpose. That is, they don’t have access to data, tables or write-back stored procedures not relevant to the task they perform.

How To Configure a Third-Party Integration At Your Practice:

  1. Open Bp Premier.
  2. From the main screen navigate to Setup > Configuration. The Configuration window appears.
  3. Click Database from the left hand menu and then the Setup third-party integrations button. The Setup third-party integrations window appears.
  4. Use the Search for text box to find the third-party provider.
  5. Check the box next to the third-party provider.
  6. Click Save. The third-party software will now be able to connect to the Bp Database.
Security Spring Clean Image

Do You Have Third-Party Applications No Longer In Use?

Have you changed third-party providers through the year?

Take a moment to deep clean your third-party applications with a security spring clean! To maintain the highest level of security and performance, it is just as important to off-board third-party applications no longer in use. If you are not sure what an application is or does, please check in with your IT provider or System Administrator first as they may have configured the integration for the practice.

You can offboard applications by revisiting the configuration process outlined above, offboard unused Partner applications by unticking the Partner applications no longer in use and press save. Please also consider removing the un-used software from the workstation and/or server.  Your IT provider or System Administrator should be able to assist you with this.

Want To Learn How to Add Value To Your Practice Through Integrated Third-Party Applications?

For a comprehensive list of approved Bp Partners, including insights into the Product and Services they provide, visit the Bp Partner Network website.

Authored by:

Monica Reed Blog Author Image

Monica Reed
Commercial Partnership Leader at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

So You Have to Call Bp Support…

by
Call Bp Support Blog Image

So an issue has occurred with Bp Premier, and you need to call Best Practice Software Support. Our Support team will always open with a standard set of questions when you first call, to identify your practice. Further questions will try to pinpoint which Bp Premier function was in use at the time of error, and what the user was doing.

Before you call Bp Support, there are some things you can do so you have the information Support need ready to go, including grabbing some Bp Premier and Windows log files ready to email. This can really help reduce resolution times and get your practice running again.

Mandatory Information

Support will always ask for the following information first, to ensure that we are speaking with a genuine contact at your practice:

  • The contact’s full name
  • The contact’s Job Role and contact details at the practice, including best telephone number and email address
  • Site ID
  • Version of Bp Premier installed

Select Help > About in the software to find out your Site ID and the Bp Premier version. If you click System Info in the same screen, you can also see a lot more information about the database and operating system that Support might ask about.

Running an Older Version?

If you are running a version of Bp Premier that is older than the current version (Saffron Service Pack 1), the issue may have been resolved in a later version. Select Help > Online to open the Bp Premier Knowledge Base and search for ‘known issues’ to run an eye over the most recent known issues.

Best Practice Software understands that upgrading must be planned around your practice hours and often involves expenses such as IT support. However, upgrading often is one of the best ways to resolve issues that occur, particularly performance-related issues, and also ensures your practice is up to date with the most recent developments in the industry, such as Electronic Prescribing and Active Ingredient Prescribing.

Help Us Help You

Support will ask different questions based on which function was being used when the error was generated. The areas we tend to drill down on are:

  • The database or your whole practice
  • The word processor
  • The patient clinical record
  • Check for payments and online claiming
  • The appointment book

You are likely to be asked some common questions around recent configuration activity, and the size and type of the error:

  • Have you recently run a Program Upgrade or Data Update, and if so, which one?
  • Roughly how many users were logged in when you saw the error? About the same number as logged in on a typical practice day?
  • Do you know how many patient records were open at the time?
  • Do you know how many providers your appointment book page was set to show?
  • Have you taken a screenshot of the error, if there is a Bp or Windows error message?

For a more detailed guide on what sort of information would be useful to Support based on which part of Bp Premier you were in, select Help > Online to open the Bp Premier Knowledge Base and search for ‘call support’. Our guide Managing general errors provides more information on how we drill down to identify the issue. This guide also contains resolution actions for some general issues that have been recently identified.

Gathering Logs

Bp Premier and Windows logs are invaluable to our Support team in identifying the issue. The good news is that you absolutely don’t have to be a technical wizard to get these!

This Support Guidance article explains how to download a utility that automatically extracts Bp Premier’s logs. Download the utility on the server or workstation causing the problem, run the utility, tick the items as indicated in the article, and you have a ZIP file ready to send!

This Support Guidance article explains how to obtain relevant Windows system logs that give our Support team more information about what was going on at the time of error. The instructions are very easy for anyone to follow, but your Windows user account does need permission to access the Windows Event Viewer, which may not be granted to all users. Follow the instructions on the server or workstation generating the error and you’ll get three sets of log files, which can zip up ready for emailing.

Tips for Memory Management

Finally, Support have come up with a set of recommendations for good memory housekeeping that will help prevent slowness and ‘out of memory’ issues. Just a few small daily actions can keep Bp Premier running and avoid the risk of data loss due to records closing prematurely:

  • When you save a document you know will be imported into Bp Premier, change the document format to TIFF file type rather than PDF. TIFF files (also known as TIF or .tif) utilise much less virtual memory than PDF files when stored and opened in Bp Premier.
  • Set the default document view for PDFs in the document viewer to Fit to Height.  
  • Larger PDFs of several MBs in size can be opened externally from the document viewer. This will normally open the PDF in a browser or Adobe Acrobat viewer.
  • Don’t open PDF reports in the Dr’s Inbox in the Document Viewer by double-clicking the file in the inbox.
  • Close open documents in the document viewer that no longer need to be open.
  • Shut down Bp Premier completely at the end of each day, and restart the next morning. If crashes or errors continue to occur, try closing and re-opening Bp Premier on the affected computer once throughout the day, for example, at the start or end of a lunch break.

For more information around memory housekeeping and Bp Premier, select Help > Online to open the Knowledge Base and search for ‘memory’.

Authored by:

Jay Rose
Lead Technical & Content Writer at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Supercharge Your Practice’s Front Desk with AutoMed

by
Automed_Supercharge blog image

The current climate has turned front desk operations at general practices into one of the most challenging jobs with reception staff, indeed the front line workers, having to deal with increased pressures including and not limited to face-to-face appointments having to be switched to telehealth at a moment’s notice, doctors intermittently working offsite, dealing with outstanding accounts caused by the change in physical patient interaction and ever-changing appointment pre-screening – not to mention the upheaval of vaccine management with its influx of new patient registrations, consent forms, waiting lists for patients, changing criteria and late stock arrivals… and then there is still the  business as usual to be taken care of.

AutoMed Systems Help Image

During these times its more important than ever to have a comprehensive, reliable suite of tools working 24/7 in the background to not only alleviate pressures, but enhance operations for the benefit of staff retention, patient experience and the practice’s bottom line.  AutoMed has a comprehensive suite of tools to assist with these very real issues facing general practices.

AutoMed’s unique booking interface allows certain appointment types to be restricted to specific session colours in Bp Premier, making the allocation of either F2F or telehealth sessions extremely easy to manage. The ability to book multiple appointments per slot has also become immensely valuable for ensuring uniform patient arrival times for vaccination clinics and indeed the correct patient to vaccine vial ratio. The additional functionality that allows the booking of up to 4 additional resources alongside the practitioner makes easy work of automating the most complex of appointment setups. 6 patients per half hour, in the Doctor’s lilac session, along with the Practice Nurse, in the Treatment Room  = Done!

Ensuring patients return to the practice for their 2nd Covid-19 vaccination has been an additional stressor for clinics, with patients either calling the practice to confirm bookings, or shopping around. AutoMed’s Auto-Dose 2 booking alleviates the pressure for the front desk, assists with session planning and is more likely to secure the patient’s return.

Digitising New Patient Registration forms and customisable, appointment specific Consent Forms has never been more valuable, and AutoMed has this covered with fully interactive digital consent forms (This is not just for Covid-19 bookings. Try it for your skin checks, or anything else really). The customisable consent forms are presented at the time of online bookings or sent via a text message when booked by reception via the Caller ID function. The secure links can also be included in Appointment Reminders. And the real beauty lies within the fact that forms save directly back to the patient’s file in Bp Premier. The entire system is based on, and uses, the appointment types that you configure in Bp Premier. AutoMed handles the Bp Premier database as the single source of data – no data is replicated outside of your Bp Premier database.

Effective time allocation has become of the essence, and we acknowledged that more could be done to assist practices with a snapshot of their appointment book to assist with proactive, rather than reactive, management. The newly released Appointment Book Audit utility in AutoMed’s dashboard is life changing for reception staff and practice managers and will become the next must-have in general practice.

There are currently 6 utility functions available:

  • Generic – shows an overview of the appointment book for any future date range. This is typically used to get a quick overview of the status of the linked eCommerce billing, missing data, TH where patients didn’t attend in the past 12 months and so on.
  • Payment Report – shows all appointment types with linked eCommerce tokens, due to be processed.
  • New Patient Report – this is where things start to get exciting! This report contains a list of all new patients due to come in, with the status of their patient registration form as well as the ability to send a text with a link, requesting the patient to complete it. All demographic data is written back to BP in real-time; with the clinical data being stored in Correspondence In, ready for the doctor to review.
  • Consent Report – this report lists all appointments that have a consent form required, with a status if it was signed, quick access to the actual document with a print function, as well as the ability to send a link on the fly to patients.
  • Missing Key Data Report – struggling with your PiPQi score? This utility will change this quickly for your practice. All patients with missing data are listed with the ability to send a link to those patients requesting the data prior to the consult.
  • Telehealth Only – the final report lists all the telehealth appointments and includes the linked eCommerce token and last face-to-face visit date, enabling clinics to review the appointments some days before the actual consult, and also to create or resend AutoMed’s built-in Video Consult links.

To learn more, register and join AutoMed’s Webinar on Thursday 28 October at 4pm Sydney time, and work through the latest features designed to transform your practice’s front desk operations.

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Stay Connected With Your Patients – Jayex Engage

by
Jayex Engage Partner Article Blog Image

During these unprecedented times of disconnect, social distancing, and isolation, it has never been more important to remain connected online. As patients have settled into the new norm of telehealth appointments and fewer appearances at the clinic due to lockdowns and COVID regulations, it has been essential that Jayex offers our practices a platform that allows them to easily connect with patients. 

There are a variety of ways practices can educate, inform and notify patients. Either through SMS, email, a healthcare portal, in-person or a phone call. However, it is evident that although patients like to remain informed and educated, they do not wish to be spammed unnecessarily. Communicating and engaging with patients via clinical reminders, preventative health campaigns or practice newsletters is the perfect way to appropriately improve patient engagement and communication. 

Email and SMS communication methods have proved to be useful throughout the COVID vaccination roll-out. The Jayex Engage platform is used by our practices to send out bulk messages to all patients or to only a select few using filters. During the early stages of the vaccination roll-out, practices were able to send a targeted email campaign to those eligible patients at certain times, urging them to book their vaccination appointment with the practice. Thus, while some Australian states were in lockdown and patients were unable to visit the practice in-person, the practice could remain connected with their patients. 

A practice that heavily relied upon our Engage platform during the first stage of the vaccination roll-out said, that while the city was in lockdown and very few patients were visiting the practice in-person, they were able to effectively communicate with their patients whilst maintaining engagement. Using a targeted vaccination email campaign, the practice sent out emails to those who were eligible, which in-turn led to easily managed vaccination appointment bookings. Jayex Engage allowed for an effective method of communication between patient and practice that was still informative, educational and not spammy. 

A patient who was eligible for the vaccination during the first phase of the roll-out spoke about how their practice made the process super easy. The patient said that the practice regularly sent out health-related campaign emails, which the patient loved, as it was an informative and purposeful way of communicating. Being reminded via email of their vaccination eligibility through a targeted and filtered email campaign, the patient went on to book a vaccination appointment through the practice website. By simply being reminded about the COVID vaccination via email, the patient was able to make an appointment at the appropriate time and swiftly be vaccinated. A clear line of communication between practice and patient ensured the vaccine roll-out was organised, timely and kept their patients safe during the pandemic. 

Jayex Engage also provides practice’s with access to a variety of templates (not just COVID related) that are completely customisable. Templates include preventative health awareness like Dry July, October Breast Cancer awareness month, Movember health awareness and more. This allowed practices to ensure they continued to communicate with their patients all year round and throughout the pandemic. This platform and method of communication, aiding the staff of practices as opposed to creating more work for them. Many practices also loved being able to communicate important practice information to their patients like welcoming new doctors, COVID rules & regulations and health alerts. 

Throughout the pandemic, practices were able to educate and inform their patients by sending direct healthcare messages straight to the patients mobile or laptop. Jayex provided an ideal way to reach any or all of their patients through preventative and educational health campaigns encouraging patients to engage and book appointments. So, although everyone was either in lockdown, isolating, or stuck at home, practices and patients were able to remain connected digitally!

Find out more about how you can improve your patient engagement and communication with Jayex Engage here.

 

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Bp Premier Saffron SP2! Sneak Peek of Features & Enhancements

by
Bp_Blog_Saffron SP2 Sneak Peak

We’re getting closer to the release of Bp Premier Saffron SP2, and what a release it’s going to be! With the ever-changing health landscape bringing so many mandated industry changes in the past 18 months, the team here at Best Practice Software have focused on bringing you a build jam-packed with new features and enhancements, based on feedback from our practices. 

Some of these features will not only save you time but improve efficiencies within your practice. We’re not without a couple of mandated changes though! Saffron SP2 will introduce components of Medicare Web Services to our Bp Premier users, in plenty of time before the 13th of March 2022 deadline. It is a big change, so for the release of Saffron SP2, we’ve split the content into two separate webinars.

Introducing Saffron SP2: Medicare Web Services Preparation, is for Practice Managers, owners, or any other authorised representatives who have not yet taken the steps to prepare for Services Australia’s adaptor technology upgrade. The webinar will focus on those key preparation steps, and will delve into more detail around the registration and extension of your B2B device/s. We’ll also take a look at the minor interface changes you might see in Bp Premier.
The information session will be followed by a Q&A in which we can address any questions you may have as you prepare for this change.

Introducing Saffron SP2: Features and Enhancements, is for all users of Bp Premier and concentrates on the new features and enhancements being introduced as part of Saffron SP2.

Interested in what some of these features are? We do have a sneak peek for you:

  • Security enhancements – force password change next log in
  • Optional removal of the Medicare expiry date alert
  • Configurable visit types
  • Recurrent appointment changes for COVID-19 vaccinations
  • Verification of Concession Eligibility (in conjunction with Medicare Web Services)
  • Medicare Web Services interface changes (PRODA, OPV and Claiming- AIR to be released Dec 2021)
  • Ability to attached Pin Protected PDF documents to outgoing emails
  • New PDF viewing tools
  • Inclusion of DASS21 assessment tool
  • Improved access to HealthLink smart forms
  • Business name inclusion for individual Doctors
  • AHPRA numbers can be added to invoices
  • Workflow improvements for restoring production data to a test server
  • Inclusion of Cervical Screening Risk Category
  • Improvements to the prescribing workflow to include duration
  • And plenty more…

Registrations are now open for both webinars; Click here to register for Introducing Saffron SP2: Medicare Web Services preparation, or click here to register for Introducing Saffron SP2: Features and Enhancements.

Customers are welcome to attend both webinars, should you need to, and if you or your staff can’t attend the live sessions we will be uploading a recording to our Bp Learning Video Library.

All Masterclass registrants will also receive copies of these recorded sessions, whether you attended or not, so we do encourage you to register. 

Authored by:

Suzi Eley Blog Author Image

Suzi Eley
 Product, Training, Knowledge and Deployment Team Leader at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

EDOC2021 Conference – Industry 4.0 Technologies & Health Systems of the Future

by
Industry 4.0 technologies conference blog article image

This exciting and innovative annual conference was founded and instituted by Team Bp Interoperability and AI Specialist, Dr. Zoran Milosevic, who will also be General Co-Chair of this year’s event.

The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, is fast transforming how businesses operate. Industry 4.0 technologies connect the physical world with the digital world. They can offset our traditional challenges such as high labour costs and distance to markets, and include technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation, cloud computing, digital twins, IoT etc.

Many of these technologies are relevant when designing and building future digital health systems and there is an opportunity to learn more about these from leading industry and research experts in the field at the forthcoming international conference on Industry 4.0 technologies – with insights into their use within and across the enterprise.

The outstanding set of international keynotes will provide the latest information about digital twins industry applications, federated learning in support of machine learning across organisational and regulatory boundaries, and composing cloud applications for analytics and AI. There will also be a very interesting talk about black holes, dark matter, our expending Universe and how AI and distributing computing are used in this research.

The aim of the conference is to start addressing new business challenges and benefits of industry 4.0 technologies, while ensuring compliance with the related human rights, ethics and legal challenges and longer-term interoperability strategies.

Additionally, several workshops are proposed to stimulate industry participation, some of which are particularly relevant to healthcare, such as AI for Health: Closing the Loop from Research to Applications. The details of this accepted workshop program will be available in mid-September.

The main conference will be held on the 27th, 28th and 29th of October and will feature these keynotes, with the full technical program to be published by the end of September. The workshops will be held on the 25th and 26th of October.

This conference is the 25th annual event, which was instigated by Best Practice Software team member, Dr Zoran Milosevic, FAIDH, FACS, SMIEEE. This was back in ’97, when he was a junior scientist at the Distributed Systems Technology Centre, one of the first Cooperative Research Centres in Australia. The aim of the EDOC series of conferences was to complement middleware conferences at the time and provide a unique forum for discussing holistic approaches for relating business models, business processes, business policies, people and technology – within and across enterprises. This niche focus has served as the main attractor for many academics and practitioners, who were instrumental in establishing and continuing its credibility and longevity over the last 25 years, making it the premier enterprise distributed computing conference.

Zoran was also instrumental in bringing this event to Australia, to celebrate the 25th anniversary and to be held on the Gold Coast, where the conference was launched. His intention was to have this event further raising the profile of Australia and Queensland, and through his capacity as Adjunct Prof at Griffith, help in stimulating collaborations between industry and research organisations in this field.

In his new role as Interoperability and AI specialist at Best Practice Software, Zoran is providing both strategic and practical guidance in the use of the latest technology and interoperability approaches to provide better engagements between GPs and patients, as part of the overall patient journey in healthcare organisations. He is passionate in helping to build sustainable and interoperable digital health ecosystems, and he is keen in using the latest HL7 Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard and latest results from AI to help in providing better support to clinicians in delivery of more effective, efficient and safer care, while engaging patients for benefits to all.

The conference is free to attend. For more information on Industry 4.0 technologies or this exciting and innovative conference, please visit the conference website.

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Bp SMS & the Best Health App – More Than An Appointment Reminder Service!

by
appointment reminder software article blog image

Bp Comms is the umbrella brand for our Bp SMS service and the Best Health App. Practices can use one or the other, or both at the same time.

Anyone who has worked in a medical practice will appreciate how important an appointment reminder service is in day-to-day operations. However, many people don’t consider the wider benefits of a robust patient communication solution beyond reminding patients of upcoming appointments.

Bp Comms is a practice-patient communication solution that offers much more in the way of functionality than just being appointment reminder software (though that is one of its features!)

We’ve put together a list of ways that you can get Bp Comms working for you outside of sending appointment reminders. Many of these are easy to setup, and in the long run will save you time and money! One added benefit of using Bp Comms is automatic Contact Note generation. This records all Bp Comms messages and contact points, keeping your communication record concise, centralised and easy to review at any time.

Make the Most of Your Appointment Book

Appointments Running Late?

We all know things happen and appointments can end up running late. You can save your team from having to make time consuming phone calls by sending single SMS messages or bulk SMS messages to book patients.

Other benefits of this functionality include:

  • Improving the patient experience by reducing their wait times, while still reassuring patients they will be seen
  • Controlling the number of patients in your waiting room. By using the SMS feature, you can ask your patients to arrive later for their appointment, or to kindly wait outside until they’re called in.

Oh No, a Doctor Has Gone Home Sick!

It happens. Just like anyone else, sometimes doctors need to leave unexpectedly due to illness or emergencies.

You can inform your patients ahead of time by sending an individual message, or a bulk message to all patients booked for that day. This gives patients the ability to reschedule their appointments, or organise to see another doctor who is available.

Come Back - We Need To See You!

You can support your practice’s recall and reminder process with Bp Comms. Send SMS messages to patients to inform them that their results are in and they need to make a follow-up appointment. This functionality is what most people think of when they hear ‘appointment reminder service’!

These SMS messages can be sent by the doctor directly from the Provider Inbox or by the team from the Follow-Up Inbox. This gives you the flexibility to adjust the workflow to suit your practice needs!

This functionality benefits your team in several ways:

  • Free up your receptionists and nurses by minimising the number of phone calls they need to make
  • Prompt your patients to call you to make an appointment
  • Record a Contact note for each contact attempt

Keeping In Touch

Keeping in touch with your patients is essential for your business. The Search Utility in Bp Premier can be the ultimate tool for sending information and marketing campaigns to your patient base.

Before we continue, it is important to note that you must have the patient’s express consent to receive Health Awareness messages.

Customer Experience Feedback

Want to know how your team are meeting the needs of your patients, or would you like feedback about a service you’re providing? Did you know that you can create a survey using an online survey creator, and send the URL to patients to complete?

This is where the Search Utility can really make your day by:

  • Allowing you to search for patients by date or day of visit, or by the doctor or nurse they saw
  • Offering functionality to send the SMS in bulk
  • Recording a Contact Note, and
  • Recording the marketing campaign details

And if you’d like to check which marketing campaign went out and when, you can review the survey results. If you’re interested in creating a patient survey, there are a number of excellent online options such as Survey Monkey, Typeform and Survey Planet.

Your Practice Would Like to Promote New Workshops

Here are two examples that might inspire you:

  • You’ve decided to run an information session for patients on the ins-and-outs of ePrescribing and why scripts look different with Active Ingredient Prescribing
  • After speaking with patients, you have found a diabetes education system could help your community.

In both scenarios, you can create a specialised SMS template to send to your patient list in bulk!

Practice Offerings

Sending out proactive health reminders and tips can be a great way of supporting your community. Here are some examples of how our practices use the Search Utility to send out bulk SMS messages:

  • Proactive Health Assessments available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
  • Availability of Covid-19 vaccines
  • Baby clinics and parenting groups
  • Offering specialised services such as employment medicals or medico-legal appointments

Notification of Practice Changes

Made a change to your opening hours? Has a new specialist joined your team? Let your patients know!

The Search Utility can make this super easy. Simply create your message template and send via Mail Merge!

Clinical Info - Just a Click Away!

Did you know that you can send SMS messages directly from the clinical record? It can help save your doctors time on the phone, and record the Contact Note straight away.

So with that in mind, what kind of information can you send from the clinical record? Here are a couple of examples that practices tell us they use.

Ad-Hoc Messages

A patient may need a gentle reminder about a change to their medication or dosage. For example, a patient who may have started taking Zoloft needs to gradually increase their dosage over several days. 

Your doctor can send an SMS message on the third day to remind them to increase the dose that day. Doctors can send messages to the patient during the consultation, or even immediately after by accessing the clinical record again.

Health Summaries Via BHA

With patients often seeing multiple doctors or specialists, your team may be asked to provide Health Summaries regularly. Proactive patients may also like having their up-to-date health information available for those ‘just in case’ moments in life.

Practices using the BHA can send Health Summaries in just three clicks. The summary will be sent straight to the patient’s phone and will be available within the App.

Providing Support With Information Leaflets

Has your patient just been diagnosed with a new condition, or starting on a new medication?

Support their health journey by sending education materials via the BHA. Select the View tab and you’ll have access to MIMS Consumer Medicines Information, Patient Education materials, and fact sheets.

For patients enrolled in the BHA, the Send Leaflet option under the Send icon will be available at the top of the window. Additionally, you’ll save on paper printing, and it’ll be recorded in your Contact Notes!

Want to Know More?

Hopefully, these examples have demonstrated how Bp Comms is so much more than just an appointment reminder service. But we’ve only just scratched the surface!

Knowledge Base
Don’t forget that as a Bp Comms user, you’ll receive access to our Knowledge Base, which contains a wealth of articles that are designed to walk you through everything from setting up Bp Comms, creating templates, sending messages, using Contact Notes, and much more!

Vimeo
Our previously recorded Bp Premier & Bp Comms Masterclasses are all available for you to watch on our Vimeo channel. Click on the links below to take a peek!

Bp Comms Training
We have an online training course focused specifically on Bp Comms! During this 3-hour course, our trainers will discuss the importance and implications of patient consent, demonstrate the setup and configuration of Bp Comms including creating and managing templates, along with the complete recall and reminder workflows, including the use of manual Contact Notes. For more information visit the Bp Virtual course page, or contact our Training team at 1300 40 1111 or training@bpsoftware.net.

Authored by:

appointment reminder software blog author image belinda bazant

Belinda Bazant
Training Content Developer at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:

Telehealth Challenges and Successes in 2021

by
Telehealth and Billing in Bp Premier

The rise of telehealth consultations in Australian practices has been a huge success since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The ability to treat patients remotely to reduce clinical risk has a range of benefits, and plenty of eHealth initiatives (such as electronic prescriptions) were fast-tracked to enable healthcare providers to continue to provide outstanding patient care in this new, uncharted territory.

Innovation often has the potential to cause some confusion, particularly when legislation hasn’t quite caught up with changes. One area that some of our practices may find confusing is the requirement to bulk bill telehealth consultations. While the Department of Health has relaxed the rules surrounding COVID-19 telehealth items, there are several considerations which Bp Premier users should understand when it comes to bulk billing telehealth consults.

Assignment of Benefits for Telehealth Item Numbers

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government introduced new, temporary MBS telehealth and phone consult item numbers in March 2020. These item numbers must be bulk billed and have a similar requirement to the standard face-to-face items on which they’re based.

In July 2021, however, the Department of Health (DoH) warned GPs that it is still a legal requirement for patients to provide their explicit consent to ‘assign their benefit’ to their GP if they’re being bulk billed for a telehealth consult. While many consider this as a legal technicality, the DoH officials posted a memo on MBS Online enforcing this rule, and noting that it extends to telehealth consultations as well.

While the general sentiment is that Medicare need to review these rules, officials have decided that for the remainder of 2021, patients can give verbal consent during their consultation to assign their benefits to their GP. The easiest way for doctors to record this is in their consultation notes. Patients can also assign their benefit to an eligible provider via email, or a responsible third party – such as the patient’s carer or relative.

In summary, to ensure your practice is complying with legislation, a patient’s consent for the assignment of benefits can be provided in writing, by email, or verbally through the technology by which the consultation takes place. This agreement can be provided by the patient or another responsible third party, and the GP must record their patient’s assignment of benefits if they wish to claim benefits online without a patient’s signature.

What Other Telehealth Challenges Have Arisen?

One of the obvious downsides of telehealth consultations is the inability to give patients referrals, prescriptions, and other critical healthcare information which can be actioned immediately. Luckily, many eHealth initiatives have come to fruition since the COVID-19 outbreak which partly solve the challenges created by telehealth consultations.

Electronic prescriptions allow GPs to send patients their prescriptions via an electronic token regardless of their location, although emailing and faxing paper prescriptions to pharmacies is still commonplace. eOrdering for both pathology and radiology is also steadily increasing in popularity amongst labs around Australia. Participating laboratories allows GPs to send investigation requests to their labs electronically, although again, emailing and faxing investigation requests is still customary for telehealth patients.

Fact Sheets in Bp Premier allows for education materials to be emailed directly to patients via Healthshare. This is an excellent resource for telehealth consultations as it’s a quick and easy way to share critical healthcare information electronically. In addition, many of our users are enjoying the benefits of improved Secure Messaging – which was implemented in the release of Bp Premier Saffron.

For more information about telehealth consults, or to schedule a customised training session to demonstrate how these features can work for your practice, please reach out to our training team here.

Authored by:

telehealth challenges article blog author image

Matthew Smith
Training and Deployment Specialist at Best Practice Software

Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars

Share this article:
BestPractice_Logo_Large - White with Transparent Background
Facebook Linkedin Vimeo

Subscribe to Our Important Communications

Newsletter Subscription

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.