Best Practice Software

eOrdering – Orchid SP1 Changes

eOrdering in Bp Premier blog image

Thanks to the availability of eOrdering, clinicians can provide their patients with a paperless option when ordering pathology and diagnostic imaging services. eOrders are transmitted securely from Bp Premier via your secure messaging provider directly to the Diagnostic Imaging and Pathology providers’ information systems.

eOrdering functionality has kept up to date with the fast-shifting demands of clinical treatment over the past decade, thanks to ongoing improvements. In Saffron SP1, Diagnostic Imaging and Pathology eOrdering was updated, and there is now a simplified method for configuring pathology and diagnostic imaging providers in Bp Premier, thanks to the launch of our new Enhanced eOrdering. 

 

E-Ordering: Benefits for Your Practice from Bp Learning on Vimeo.

Changes to Enhanced eOrdering in Bp Premier Orchid

In Bp Premier Orchid, legacy eOrdering will have the following functionality:

·        Legacy eOrder providers configured in previous versions will continue to have the functionality to generate eOrders.

·        Legacy eOrder providers cannot be added or configured through the Contacts window.

o   New eOrder providers must be added through the Setup eOrdering screen.

o   If a legacy eOrder provider needs to be configured, they should be merged with the respective record in the Setup eOrdering screen if the provider has joined the Partner Network.

Bp Premier version Orchid is undergoing extensive beta testing and will be available soon.

Upcoming Changes to Enhanced eOrdering in Bp Premier Orchid Service Pack 1

In Bp Premier Orchid Service Pack 1, legacy eOrdering functionality will be fully removed. In this version, legacy eOrder providers will no longer generate eOrders. Only providers configured through the Setup eOrdering screen will have the functionality to generate eOrders.

What Do I Need to Do to Prepare for the Changes in Orchid SP1?

We suggest that you check your current pathology or diagnostic imaging eOrder providers to see if they have joined the Bp Partner Network. To view the list of current Bp eOrdering Partners, select Help > Online from inside Bp Premier to open the online knowledge base, and search for ‘Bp eOrdering Partners’.

Choose the scenario that best describes your enhanced eOrdering configuration in Bp Premier for information on how to prepare for the changes in Bp Premier Orchid:

ScenarioActions Required
My Practice has never used eOrdering, and we would like to enable this. How?We recommend contacting your preferred diagnostic imaging and pathology providers directly to discuss the implementation of eOrdering at your Practice.
My Practice currently uses eOrdering but the diagnostic imaging or pathology provider is not available in the list to merge.

If your Practice currently transmits eOrders, before you upgrade to Orchid, we strongly recommend you confirm that the pathology or diagnostic imaging providers you transmit eOrders to have joined the Bp Partner Network and are available for configuration in the Setup eOrdering screen.

 

If any of the eOrdering service providers that your Practice uses have not yet joined the Bp Partner Network, we advise getting in touch with them to find out if they are aware of the changes and have spoken to the Best Practice Commercial Partnerships team about joining the Bp Partner Network before the release of Bp Premier Orchid Service Pack 1.

My Practice currently uses eOrdering, and the diagnostic imaging or pathology provider appears in the list; however, we haven’t merged these contacts yet.If you have any eOrdering providers configured in Bp Premier through the legacy method and have confirmed they are on the Partner Network, we recommend using the merge functionality in the eOrdering Setup screen to merge contacts. This must be done before upgrading to Orchid SP1.
We are already using eOrdering; we have confirmed the providers we use are in the list, and we have merged the contacts. Do we need to do anything?Your Practice is configured for eOrdering, and no further action is required.

Testing eOrdering

Once you’ve enabled eOrdering, be sure to test the eOrder generation from both the Bp Premier server and a client machine. Information on how to test is available from the Bp Premier Knowledge Base.

Need More Information?

Not a worry!

For more information on how to merge eOrder providers and test and troubleshoot eOrdering setup, select Help > Online from inside Bp Premier to open the online knowledge base, and search for ‘merge eOrdering’.

Need Further Assistance?

As always, help is available! If you need assistance with anything related to eOrdering, or any other enquiries, our Support team are available via phone or email.

You can contact our Software Support team on 1300 40 1111 (Australia) and select Bp General Products (Option 1/1) on the menu or by emailing us at support@bpsoftware.net.

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Solving the Healthcare Interoperability Crisis: Halo Connect

Halo connect logo

Best Practice Software congratulates Halo Connect on its launch as it brings to market a modern cloud-based interoperability platform designed for clinical software. In a vote of confidence for the emerging platform, Best Practice Software is pleased to announce a significant investment in the company. 

Halo Connect will provide Best Practice Premier integrators with a single integration point that allows health data to be accessed safely and securely in real-time via an API. The financial investment will allow Halo Connect to supercharge development of a modern cloud-based API that conforms to industry standard FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources).

Chris Smeed, Halo Connect founder, commented, “In building and scaling healthcare start-up “Cubiko”, I came to realise that data analysis leads to better patient outcomes and improved financial sustainability of medical practices. But the data was difficult to unlock, and not many of the software systems would speak to each other. We built Halo Connect to solve this issue.”

This investment represents a significant step in the evolution of the Bp Partner Network and provides assurance around accessing real-time and accurate health information for both patients and integration partners across the current and future cloud products.  

Founder and CEO of Best Practice Software, Dr Frank Pyefinch, said, “with the speed at which digital health is progressing towards omnichannel patient-centred healthcare, providing reliable, quality, secure, and real-time access to patient records is more important than ever.” 

Dr Frank Pyefinch commented, “Best Practice is excited to work with Chris and the Halo Connect team to bring the first ever Best Practice API to market and with the investment will provide a rapid boost to the Best Practice interoperability roadmap as well as the future of interoperability in Australia.”

The introduction of Halo Connect will simplify partner integrations with Bp Premier and cloud platforms, creating a single integration point. The platform will create efficiencies in the provision of partner support and may reduce development costs incurred by partners in the design and development of their tools. Medical practices will benefit from their software providers being able to seamlessly integrate and reduce any unwanted stress on their on-premise infrastructure as well as equipping them for future cloud migrations.  

After a successful beta program across Cubiko customers, work is currently underway to deliver key interoperability projects with Aged Care and Acute Care partners, with the aim to make Halo Connect available to all Best Practice Software partners in October 2022. 

For software vendors interested in integrating with Best Practice and the soon-to-be-available Halo Connect, Best Practice Software offers a Partner Network program. To find out more information on how to apply, please contact partners@bpsoftware.net.  

Best Practice Software and Halo Connect look forward to working with industry partners to provide a seamless API that progresses standards and integrations.  

If you’re interested in joining the waitlist for Halo Connect’s cloud-based APIs for Best Practice, sign up here.

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There is Art to Medicine – As Well As Science

Best Practice Software Bundaberg Mural Image

“Most especially must I tread with care, in matters of life and death”. 

Painted across the Woondooma Street side of the Best Practice Software building, the cursive script reads like an excerpt from an 18th-century poem.

Art to Medicine Blog Best Practice Software Bundaberg Mural PhotoWhen questioned on the Hippocratic Oath, many people will quote the quintessential phrase where the physician promises ‘first do no harm’. One of the more poetic lines from the Oath, however, which very few people would recognise, encourages those in medical practice to, ‘remember that there is art to medicine, as well as science.’

Just like in any other form of art, there is a need for creativity and individuality. Healthcare professionals must be able to apply their generalised knowledge to the specific needs of each individual patient.  In this way, the art of medicine includes both the science of medicine and the ability to apply that science in a way that meets the needs of each patient. 

This is something Best Practice Software founders Dr. Frank and Lorraine Pyefinch know intimately having both worked in healthcare. As a General Practitioner Dr. Pyefinch understands that, “there is an art to medicine, and it starts with understanding the patient.” Quote Best Practice Software is proud to share our special story in the format of this hand-painted mural, which celebrates the story of how Dr Frank & Lorraine Pyefinch developed and grew the idea of creating an electronic medical practice record into one of Australasia’s most successful Health Technology   groups. Lorraine Pyefinch shares that the mural illustrates, “the transformation from when doctors had to write everything by hand to a more modern use of automation and technology.” But above all else, it represents the spirit of innovation and its personal connectedness with Health Practitioners and Patients.

In collaboration with the vision of Best Practice Software, the artwork’s bespoke design has been created by local artists Mark Terry, Nicole Wone, and Taylor Klaasen , who incorporated several specific elements relating to both the heritage of Best Practice Software and the First Nations People upon whose land the Operations Hub resides.

Evolution was a metaphor and inspiration for the process. To each of the artists, evolution represented something different. For Mark, the goal was to illustrate, ‘how we are all connected through shared human experiences such as life and death’ which is depicted in the changing leaves across the wall.

Best Practice Software Mural Sun ImageNicole, as a local Gooreng Gooreng and Bundaburra Yidinji Woman, wanted to “give an Indigenous perspective to the story of the mural.” She brought to life the “Ginmine” (the Sun) as the giver of all life, with science providing its connection to evolution on Earth, and spiritually how it explores and brings light to unseen energies in all living animals and plants. She also incorporated a tribute to the Rainbow Serpent for the significance it plays in creation and the stunning imagery of the beginning of time and greater movement in the cosmos.

 

Throughout the mural are intricate and delicate patterns woven in by Taylor, which reflect the flow of energy and how everything is interconnected. To her, evolution, “represents change and how the world really works. Everyone is always changing.” These unique patterns demonstrate the individual journey that each person takes in their lifetime.   

Best Practice Software Mural Bird ImageDr & Mrs Pyefinch’s personal stamp on the quality and interoperability of our software products is represented by the mathematical symbol for “Pi” and the Finch bird (together, as Pyefinch), which soars high above. The Finch connects life between the earth and the sun, and how DNA strands interconnect all we do in supporting Healthcare Practitioners 

The mural is a visual representation of how far we’ve come as an organisation, and how our core values have remained the same throughout our evolution – to make a real difference in healthcare. We believe that art has an important role to play in both our personal and professional lives, and we hope that this mural will inspire creativity, connection and pride in all who see it. 

Thank you for being part of our story! 

Learn more about the Bundaberg Mural, and the meaning behind it, here.

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Digital Intake Forms: How Much Time Could You Be Saving?

Digital Intake Forms Blog image

Patient intake forms are tedious and time-consuming, not only for the patient but also for the practice. There are often multiple forms that new patients are required to fill out before an initial appointment. Administration staff then need to enter patient details into the Practice Management System (PMS) manually. 

For example, when working with patients who have a history of pain, detailed reports are required to ensure that the level of care matches the depth of the patient’s issue. Specialist centres have carefully curated intake forms that cover the patient’s medical history, including psychometric testing, e.g. DASS21, that must be completed before a patient’s initial consultation. These forms would either be received via email or be filled out by hand in the office on the day of their appointment.  

Prior to the implementation of a digital solution in the form of digital intake forms, practices resorted to cumbersome and time-consuming processes which caused a significant administrative burden. These often involved acquiring completed forms from a patient, having administrative staff calculate psychometric test scores, and finally manually inputting the data into the PMS. These forms could often take hours to process and upload, and they carried with them the risk of human error during data entry. For practices that might see 20+ new patients each week, this created a significant bottleneck.

To help streamline this process, Patient Plus saw an opportunity to alleviate administrative pressure from the intake process by creating digital intake forms that allow patients to update their information and medical history directly into the PMS prior to their first sessions.  

The system’s core functionalities include seamless integration between the form and Best Practice Software, the ability to score and process psychometric testing automatically, and additional form fields that provide access to limitless patient data. With mandatory form fields and input conditions set for certain numerical fields (e.g., the 10-digit limit for Medicare), the risk of human error is drastically minimised. 

The digital intake forms also offer patients the functionality to ‘Save & Resume Later’ by creating a secure, unique link that is sent to their email for completion at a future time. This unique link can also be shared with trusted contacts of patients who might need assistance in completing the form.  

For patients, this allows the flexibility to run through their history at their own pace. By pre-filling their information, they can be confident that their history will be known when they step into the room with their doctor, and they can immediately start focussing on the next steps in their journey. 

Once the form has been processed through the PMS, practices are provided with three options for patient summaries – long-form, short-form, and mid-sized PDFs – that can be generated to give the doctor an overview of the patient in varying levels of detail. 

All the data is processed and hosted on a secure server, ensuring that the practice complies with data security standards and protects confidential patient information. Patients also have the option to receive a copy of the form submission via email, allowing them to keep a copy for their own records. 

Easing the administrative workload caused by intake form processing means doctors no longer need to spend time scouring through the patient history since the automation ensures they have the relevant information before a patient’s appointment. 

One practice using Patient Plus has seen a dramatic shift in the hours spent processing patient intake forms. With nearly 30 hours back in their week, the practice has been able to shift their full attention from data entry and back to their patients, providing a better in-house experience. 

Patient Plus fills a necessary gap in the healthcare industry, providing a better communication line between patients and their doctors. Implementing digital tools creates an opportunity for doctors to spend more of their appointment time assessing the history, investigating patient concerns, and maximising patient engagement. With seamless integration, security of data, and ease of completion, the form has alleviated the pressure from the doctors, their staff, and the patients. To learn more, visit the Patient Plus website.     

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