Join Product Training, Knowledge & Deployment Leader Suzi Eley and Commercial Partnership Specialist Will Durnford in the first episode of the Best Practice Software Podcast.
In this episode, Suzi and Will cover topics raised during the Electronic Prescribing masterclass, such as queries surrounding implementation and rollout, how the token system works, how to find a participating pharmacy, and associated privacy concerns.
Listen to the podcast in browser below.
Note: Since the time of recording all states and territories have approved the use of Electronic Prescriptions. eScripts are now a legal form of prescription across Australia.
A core part of healthcare in Australia today is communication between healthcare providers. However many of these sensitive communications are taking place via unsecure channels, or through channels that aren’t compatible, leading to a breakdown of communication, poor health outcomes and inefficiencies.
To solve this challenge, a national initiative has been introduced to transform the way health information is exchanged in Australia. A key goal of the initiative is to equip healthcare providers with the ability to communicate with other professionals utilising secure messaging via their integrated practice management system. This will result in reduced dependency on unsecure channels such as paper-based correspondence, fax machine or post.
Here’s what you need to know about secure messaging – what it is, why it’s important, how it will impact practices and the timeline for implementation.
What is Secure Messaging?
Secure messaging enables the encrypted electronic exchange of patient healthcare information between healthcare providers. Point-to-point delivery of messages such as discharge summaries, referrals, requests and results represent the typical use case.
The electronic message is encrypted by the sender and decrypted by the receiver and therefore cannot be read if intercepted in transit.
Software vendors and their solutions, built to facilitate secure message delivery, are well established in Australasia, some with over 25 years in the market.
It’s fair to say that the majority of practices have had some exposure to secure message service providers (eg, Telstra Health Argus, Healthlink, Medical Objects and ReferralNet) and may even have more than one service enabled.
Why Does Secure Messaging Matter?
In a shared care environment, where it is necessary to exchange healthcare information, secure messaging ensures that the highest level of security and privacy is maintained. Protecting a patient’s sensitive, healthcare information and in alignment with the Privacy Act 1988. In addition, the benefits of exchanging data electronically and securely include speed, efficiency, lower risk and reduced cost.
A collaborative, nationwide approach to unify secure messaging providers is crucial to providing a seamless healthcare journey for patients, and for enabling simple and easy communication amongst healthcare providers.
Isn’t Secure Messaging Already In Place?
Imagine for a moment if our telephone service providers weren’t interoperable, for example your phone network wasn’t able to call someone you know who subscribes to another phone network. How effective would our telephone system be if this were the case? To date, we are in somewhat of a similar situation with secure messaging.
Despite the widespread adoption of secure messaging, the individual secure messaging service providers have approached messaging differently, resulting in incompatibility in many instances. The lack of interoperability has resulted in fragmented systems and communication.
Furthermore, messages and referrals generated by practitioners are often limited to providers listed in their local address book or directory, making it time consuming to locate contact details for providers outside their normal referral network. The above method also relies on the provider information being kept up to date by the practice, often leading to inaccurate information, possibly even providers that are no longer in operation.
What is Changing?
The Australian Digital Health Agency is leading a program of change, to enhance interoperability standards for secure messaging. This initiative is in direct support of the National Digital Health Strategy, to reduce barriers to using secure electronic exchange of health data and ensure interoperability between technologies. Two key changes will take place as part of this initiative.
First is the introduction of a federated provider directory capability, enabling clinical information systems and secure messaging delivery systems to search cross-directory to find accurate, trusted and validated healthcare provider electronic addresses.
Second, software providers are enhancing the message exchange format to meet an agreed standardized specification for message content – streamlined to improve interoperability across disparate service providers and clinical systems.
How is Best Practice Software Getting Involved?
Best Practice Software has actively participated in the collaboration between software providers and government bodies, to define interoperability standards for secure messaging solutions.
The development to enhance secure messaging and be conformant to the ADHA specification is currently in testing phase and the enhanced functionality will be available in Bp Premier Saffron and VIP.net Ruby SP3 in the coming months.
When Will Enhanced Secure Messaging be Available More Widely?
There are 42 software organisations taking part in the ADHA secure messaging enhancement initiative, the change program is scheduled to conclude this October so there are certainly exciting times ahead for improved data workflows and efficiencies!
Authored by:
Monica Reed Manager, Commercial & Customer Enablement at Best Practice Software
On the 6th of May, Australia’s first ePrescription was issued and dispensed in Victoria. We are thrilled to announce that the first electronic prescription in Australia was processed through Best Practice Software.
See below for the full press release from Fred IT, which includes a comment from Best Practice Software CEO, Dr. Frank Pyefinch.
Australia’s first electronic prescription successfully dispensed
Leading Australian prescribing and dispensing vendors collaborate to complete electronic prescription
Australia’s first paperless electronic prescription in primary care was successfully prescribed and dispensed in Victoria yesterday, marking a significant first step in the national delivery of electronic prescriptions.
The first electronic prescribing and dispensing occurred between Anglesea Medical and Anglesea Pharmacy. It used the “token” model where the doctor sends the electronic prescription along with a code or “token” to the patient by SMS or email. The patient then forwards or presents the code to their chosen pharmacy for dispensing.
According to Dr David Corbet at Anglesea Medical who prescribed the first electronic prescription, “The process is as simple as writing the prescription in the usual manner and, with the consent of the patient, selecting that the prescription is generated as an electronic prescription.”
Pharmacist Jason Bratuskins dispensed the first electronic prescription in his Anglesea pharmacy. He commented, “our patients and staff have been profoundly influenced by the isolation requirements of COVID-19, and it has been terrific to be part of efforts to re-define how we support our patients with alternative options for fulfilling prescriptions. I was pleased to see that this could sit comfortably alongside our existing processes.”
This week’s successful electronic prescription occurred using the Best Practice prescribing system, prescription exchange service eRx Script Exchange, Fred NXT Dispense and MedView Flow.
Pharmacist and CEO of Fred IT Group, Paul Naismith said, “the achievement of the first successful electronic prescription in primary care settings is a major step forward in Australia’s provision of a digital network that provides patients with flexibility for how they access their medications. I am very proud of the Fred and eRx teams which, through ongoing innovation and hard work, have achieved this result ahead of schedule in a very challenging work environment.”
CEO of Best Practice, Dr Frank Pyefinch, was thrilled to hear that the first electronic script had been successfully transferred using Best Practice Software, saying, “our team has pulled out all stops to deliver this important functionality as quickly as possible and we expect that it will confirm that electronic prescriptions are the way of the future. It is history in the making!”
The token model will work alongside the Active Script List (ASL) to provide patients with flexibility in how they digitally access their medications. This week’s success covered the entire electronic process of the token model: prescribing electronically in Best Practice, providing the patient with a token with the required number of repeats via eRx, sending the dispensing request to the pharmacy, integrating it into the pharmacy’s workflow, based on MedView Flow, and then dispensing in Fred NXT.
Fred CEO Paul Naismith emphasised that ongoing industry collaboration will be vital to the national delivery of electronic prescriptions. Naismith concluded, “the priority from here is to continue approving participating vendor systems and understand what is needed to prepare patients, prescribers and pharmacies for a national system of electronic prescriptions. The token model and ASL are both important components of a national approach which provides patients with the flexibility and security to manage their electronic prescriptions in collaboration with their local prescriber and pharmacist.”
Media Release originally published 7 May, 2020.
Video: ePrescribing Q & A for Patients
We encourage Practices to share this video with patients and staff, to help them understand the benefits of ePrescribing.
As patients skip their regular doctor visit in the current COVID-19 climate, or attend a different clinic they think may be less busy, your Practice may accumulate records from patients that have not visited in a year or more. It is for reasons such as this, amongst others, why effective management of patient records is so crucial to your Practice.
It’s good practice to regularly search for these types of patients and mark their demographic record as ‘inactive’. Inactive patients will not appear by default in patient list screens, which helps to keep these screens limited to active and relevant patients, and reduce operator error. You can run a search and mark patients as inactive in bulk from Bp Premier’s powerful Database Search tool.
What if I need to Include Inactive Patients?
If you need to include inactive patients at any time, tick the Show Inactive Patients filter at the top of patient list screens. Inactive records will be shown with a pink background, to help your operators distinguish between inactive and active patients while managing patient records.
Search for Inactive Patients and Mark All as Inactive
You can only mark bulk patients as inactive from the Database Search. If you accidentally mark patients as inactive, you will have to manually reactivate each patient from their demographics.
From the Main Screen, select Utilities > Search and click Load Query.
Browse to C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\SuppliedQueries\Demographics
Select Active patients who have no had a visit in the last 12 months, have no future appointments, were not created in the last six months and click Open.
In the SQL Query text box, adjust the values indicated in the query text to tweak your search, for example, to search for no visits over the last 24 months instead of the default 12.
Click Run Query.
Select File > Mark as Inactive. Click Yes when Bp Premier prompts you to confirm.
If you adjusted the query and want to run it again in the future, click Save Query and save your modified query under a different filename. You can reload your custom query at any time.
You’ve successfully cleared a group of inactive patients from your patient lists!
MORE INFORMATION ON MANAGING PATIENT RECORDS
For more information on managing patient records, the Bp Premier online help Knowledge Base contains more information on running queries and marking a single patient as inactive or deceased. Select Help > Online from the menu and type ‘inactive’ into the search bar to see more articles on this topic.
Authored by:
Jay Rose Technical Writer at Best Practice Software
For anyone currently working in the medical industry, being aware of the impacts of COVID-19 is a top priority, and that goes for us here at Best Practice Software as well. Our knowledge base is an incredibly useful repository of guides and videos, and we’ve endeavoured to keep it up to date as COVID-19 has been developing.
New COVID-19 Knowledge Base Content
We’ve been working hard to find ways that you can use Bp Premier to maximise your Practice’s efficiency when it comes to COVID-19 treatment, and you can now access some invaluable tips and tricks around managing COVID-19 in your Practice through the Bp Premier Knowledge Base.
Some of these include:
Managing COVID-19 in the appointment book: Keep track of any appointments made for patients with COVID-19 symptoms to ensure they’re distanced from regular patients or are offered telehealth appointments.
Managing telehealth and telephone appointments: With telehealth temporarily becoming the new norm, find out the best way to make telehealth work with Bp Premier in your practice, wither you’re using third-party integrated software, or non-integrated software.
Adding COVID-19 tests to your favorites: Request COVID-19 tests quickly by setting them up as pathology favorites.
Creating a COVID-19 clinical screening assessment: Save time in your consults by setting up an Autofill clinical screening assessment for potential COVID-19 patients.
Managing COVID-19 patient education: Don’t let your patients rely on dubious COVID-19 information circulating on the internet. Instead, provide them with verified, reputable information available from Bp Premier’s patient education library or create your own collection of COVID-19 patient education materials.
COVID-19 letters and templates: Download the May data update to access new predefined COVID-19 templates to be used in a variety of scenarios.
COVID-19 database queries: You can now run a query to find out which of your patients fall into categories that are considered at risk, so you can act accordingly to ensure they remain safe.
COVID-19 diagnoses and reasons for visit: A range of new diagnoses and reasons for visit have been added to Bp Premier. These can be added to the patient record when finalising a patient’s visit.
COVID-19 clinical reminders: Remind patients who require testing to follow correct procedures by setting up clinical reminder messages.
COVID-19 data updates: We’re constantly updating Bp Premier with new data and features, such as MBS numbers and templates, to help you combat COVID-19. Make sure you’ve downloaded the latest data update to take advantage of these.
COVID-19 bulk billing incentives for at risk patients: Confused about the new bulk billing incentive numbers for at risk patients? Find out how these should be used.
Instructional Videos
We also understand that different people process information in different ways, with some preferring videos over written instructions. With this in mind, we’ve been working on adding more video content to the knowledge base, to ensure processes are as easy to follow as possible.
We’ve recently added video for topics such as:
Creating customised COVID-19 patient education
Adding a current prescription
Accessing Bp Utilities
COVID-19 appointment booking process
Creating custom fee schedules
Cloning pathology or radiology preferences
Paying for services with a deposit
Reconciling online claiming batches with rejections
Reversing unbanked payments
Select the ‘video’ link in the Bp Premier knowledge base header to view our collection of instructional videos.
Step-by-Step Articles
Finally, we’ve been working on creating articles in the new step-through format that documents a process from end-to-end. These are designed to guide you seamlessly through some of the more complex or lengthy processes in Bp Premier.
We’ve added step-through articles for topics such as:
Managing pathology and radiology results
Setting up the clinical module
Setting up the management module
Merging Bp Premier databases
Configuring medicare certificates
Setting up a multiple-location practice.
Visit the knowledge base by selecting ‘Help’, and then clicking ‘Online’, or by pressing F1 on your keyboard from within Bp Premier.
Authored by:
Jennifer Stewart Technical Writer at Best Practice Software
For those who may not be aware, the Australian Government has fast-tracked ePrescribing legislation in an effort to assist Practices and patients with quickly and safely receiving prescription medication, and without exposing either party to unnecessary risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Best Practice Software is excited to be a part of the electronic prescribing revolution. In fact, the first electronic prescription issued in Australia was processed through Bp Premier!
However, a lot of people are asking us all sorts of questions around the implementation of electronic prescribing, and what they need to do or know in order to be prepared for the rollout.
If you count yourself among those unsure of what to do, don’t worry. Our Bp Learning team has put together an incredibly valuable, FREE Masterclass webinar focused on the Bp Premier JADE SP3 update, which includes electronic prescribing functionality.
What Will be Covered in the Electronic Prescribing Masterclass Webinar?
Great question! Firstly, two guest presenters from the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) will be introducing electronic prescribing, and will cover answers to common asked questions such as:
What is electronic prescribing?
What is a token, and what does it look like?
How does a patient receive a token?
How does a patient get their medication?
What if the patient loses their token?
Following on from that, our expert trainers will take you through how to use the eScript functionality in Bp Premier. This is a must see if you would like to know more about:
How to enable and configure your system
The costs involved
Patient consent requirements
How to generate an eScript
What to do if a patient loses the token
What to do if the token is sent to an incorrect mobile number or email
How to cancel an eScript
Turning on electronic prescriptions in Bp Premier
Finally, we invite you to stay on at the end when we open the floor to your questions.
But wait, there’s more! We’ll also be covering some handy resources that you can use to educate your Practice staff and patients about electronic prescribing. If you’d like to take a look at some of these resources early, we’ve provided some links below for you:
Since mid-March, when warnings against overseas travel began, over 200,000 citizens and residents have returned home to Australia, with thousands more arriving by plane each week. An enforced, 14-day hotel quarantine required significant resources to be deployed by State Governments Agencies from organising the Hotels willing to provide the services to a massive logistical operation to provide healthcare resources in a very short space of time.
In Victoria the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) sought out Dr. Nathan Pinskier, Director and Co-owner of the Medi 7 group of practices, and Clinical Advisor for the Australian Digital Health Agency to assist and manage the provision of medical services to the quarantined travellers. Working with DHHS, a group of Doctors was put together to support the healthcare needs of newly arrived quarantined Australians in hotels around Melbourne.
Shortly after the medical service commerced, Dr. Pinskier contacted Dr. Frank and Lorraine Pyefinch at 4:00 pm on Thursday, 9th April with an urgent request for assistance. He explained, “what started as a requirement for one doctor the previous Saturday has rapidly expanded into the provision of five doctors today and possibly even more in the next week or so, as more and more repatriation flights arrive from overseas. Our team of doctors has been providing consults through both telehealth and face-to-face appointments.”
Initially, this rapidly formed and mobilised team did not have a practice management system to capture clinical notes electronically, therefore raising the issues of data privacy, record retention, long term storage, archiving and the decision support provided by Bp Premier when it comes to allergies and medication. Here enters Team Bp.
Within an hour of the request, our team had provided 15 Bp Premier licences and enablement material, which allowed Dr. Pinskier’s in house IT team to configure the software over the Easter long weekend. On Wednesday, 15th April, we issued Dr. Pinskier with a further 10 licences to support the expanding group of doctors.
“We think it is fantastic that Nathan and his team have stepped up to help in this unprecedented public health emergency,” said Dr. Frank Pyefinch. “So we were delighted to quickly deliver a solution that will ensure accurate recording of patient encounters and provide for a safe clinical handover when their isolation periods have completed”.
Dr Pinskier has provided a hosted environment to access Bp Premier. The doctors access the software via a remote desktop login using either wifi or 4G. They have full functionality including the ordering of pathology online and also prescriptions. “This is great solution for doctors working across a number of hotels. It allows for the provision of safer and better coordinated healthcare,” Dr Pinskier said. “We thank Frank and Lorraine and their team for their fantastic assistance.”
We were very fortunate this week to have two industry experts, Katrina Otto and Margaret Windsor, present the “COVID-19 and Calm Efficiencies in your Practice” webinar via our Be In The Know platform.
During the presentation, Katrina and Margaret shared numerous tips and tricks for Bp Premier and offering potential workflow solutions as you navigate this new and evolving landscape.
As a valued member of our extended Best Practice family, we would like to support your Practices during these difficult times by sharing with you the following resources.
1. The Webinar Recording
If you missed either session, we’ve uploaded a copy of the video to our Bp Learning Vimeo Channel which can be found here. Feel free to share the Vimeo link with other Practice staff who might benefit from the information.
2. A copy of the Presentation
A copy of the PDF PowerPoint slides used during the presentation can be found here.
3. COVID-19 Related Information
Katrina has a wealth of COVID-19 related information available here on her website, including fact sheets, webinars, and a number of fantastic eLearning modules which can be accessed here.
4. Additional Resources
Margaret also has some fantastic additional resources from our Western QLD PHNs that she mentioned during the presentation which you can find here.
5. Best Practice Knowledge Base
Best Practice also has a number of COVID-19 specific resources at your disposal on our Knowledge Base. Look out for the COVID-19 banner to access these resources, including:
COVID-19 and Calm Efficiencies in your Practice FAQ
Most recent COVID-19 data updates
Grouping COVID-19 patients in your appointment book
COVID-19 database queries
Guidance on telehealth and telephone consultations
COVID-19 diagnosis and reason for visit
COVID-19 letter and Bp Comms templates
The Knowledge Base can be accessed from within Bp Premier from the Help menu > Online. Click here to watch a short demo on the help and training options available.
As mentioned in the webinar, if you’re not on the latest Jade version of Bp Premier, we strongly recommend upgrading NOW so you’re ready when Fast Tracked ePrescribing is released in the coming weeks. There are significant differences between older versions like Summit and Lava, so it’s a good idea to get up to speed on what’s changed between your current version and Jade SP2. To help make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible, Best Practice has prepared comprehensive Upgrade Guides for each version going back as far as Summit. The documents consolidate all changes to features, functions and workflows into one digestible list, with links to all available collateral.
To answer any upgrade related questions you might have, we’re also running free FAQ sessions four times a week in the lead up to the Jade SP3 release. Take advantage of 15 minutes of uninterrupted access to a Lead Support Specialist which you can register for here.
Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to email us at BpTraining.
Leading practice business analytics platform, Cubiko, releases a free dashboard to help practices continue patient care and manage the business impact of COVID-19.
Brisbane-based start-up, Cubiko, is releasing Cubiko Assist, a free distilled version of its main Practice intelligence software, to help Australian healthcare practices deal with the impact of COVID-19 and to reduce avoidable hospital admissions.
The pandemic has created a range of pressures for Practices including collapsing revenue as patients stay away (meaning some miss out on vital care), reduced income due to bulk billing arrangements for telehealth, unmanageable workload in some practices and workforce difficulties when staff are in quarantine or isolation.
‘It’s definitely not business as usual – it’s practice management in a pandemic,’ says Cubiko CEO, Chris Smeed. ‘We knew practices would need different tools for that. So we asked what they needed and then we built Cubiko Assist.’
Cubiko Assist enables Practices to identify and continue treating patients with high care needs to prevent them crash landing in hospital. It provides insights that equip Practices to make best use of available staff and resources, identifying the billing impact of lockdown measures and telehealth appointments. It also ensures coverage for upcoming appointments despite changes in doctors’ availability due to being quarantined or homeschooling children.
Cubiko Assist is designed to ensure there is no extra work, or spreadsheets or uploads required. The data is automated and integrates seamlessly with Bp Premier.
Many practices have already registered for the new software, which will roll out in April and be free for the next 6 months or until the pandemic is over.
‘It’s our contribution to fighting COVID-19,’ explains Smeed. ‘We can’t do what the doctors and practice managers on the frontline do. But we can equip them to do it well by giving them easy access to meaningful data so they can respond to COVID-19’s unprecedented impact on their practice.’
Cubiko Assist is proudly backed by a growing partnership that includes AAPM, AGPAL, Microsoft, Splice Marketing and Best Practice Software. These companies have galvanised around Cubiko Assist and committed to providing practices with insights and support to find effective responses to their Practice metrics.
Cubiko is a leading Practice business analytics platform, effortlessly combining all a Practice’s different data sources – Bp Premier, Xero and Tanda – into one easy-to-use platform to simplify task prioritisation, process improvement and profit growth.
Many practices are currently dealing with an influx of patients, both new and existing. With staff run off their feet in such a hectic time, small mistakes may begin to pop up with managing patient records and associated information.
The Most Common Mistake
The most common error made when managing patient records is accidentally creating a duplicate entry for a patient.
In such a stressful and busy time, it’s a forgivable oversight to inadvertently create a new record for an existing patient. Perhaps they have not been to the Practice in several years, they might have married and changed surnames, or they may even have started using a nickname rather than their given name when booking an appointment.
Quickly Identifying Duplicate Records
A database search can help you quickly identify any duplicate patient records. By using the Search Utility you will be able to run a loaded query and generate a list of duplicate records.
A number of useful queries are provided with a Bp Premier installation. These can be found in the folder C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\SuppliedQueries.
From the Main Screen > Utilities menu > Search
Select Load Query
Highlight Demographic and double-click
Select Duplicated patients by dob,name.sql
Click Open or double-click
Click on Run query
Search query will generate a list of duplicate patient records. Print or save the list as a XML or CSV file.
Cleaning up your Patient List
Once duplicates patient records have been identified, you have the ability to merge the records. However, it is important to note that you must be very careful when merging records, as it is a permanent action and cannot be undone.
Select View > Patients from the main screen. The Patient list screen will appear.
Search for the patient by surname, firstname. Both records should be listed in the patient list. The records will have the same name and details.
Select the patient record that you want to keep.
Select Edit > Merge from the menu. If the Merge option is not available, speak to your system administrator to have the user permission added.
Read the Merge Patients warning prompt that appears. If you are sure you have the right patient, click Yes.
Search for the patient to merge by surname. The patient selected here will be merged with the first patient and the record removed from the database.
Select the patient and click Select.
The second patient record will now be removed and any notes, results, documents, and patient data recorded for the patient will be moved to the patient selected in step 3.
Avoid Creating Duplicate Records
As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. The tips below will help to mitigate the risk of duplicate entries when managing patient records.
When creating an appointment or searching the patient list ensure you tick the checkbox ‘show inactive patients’.
Use more advanced search options such as the patient’s DOB or Medicare number.
On ‘adding appointment’ window use the View Details box to further check a patient’s demographic information.
Review your current Practice policies and procedures when creating new patient records to ensure all staff following the same system.
Authored by:
Belinda Bazant Training and Deployment Specialist at Best Practice Software
