Best Practice Software

Stay Connected With Your Patients – Jayex Engage

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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.

 

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Bp Premier Saffron SP2! Sneak Peek of Features & Enhancements

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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:

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

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

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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.

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

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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:

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Belinda Bazant
Training Content Developer at Best Practice Software

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Telehealth Challenges and Successes in 2021

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:

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Matthew Smith
Training and Deployment Specialist at Best Practice Software

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My Turning Point In The Pursuit of Effective Practice Management

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Contributed by guest author, Dana Tse.

There is much more to effective practice management than what most people think about.

As practice managers, we are always on the go. Putting fires out, worrying about team members doing their job, eating on the run, filling our day with webinars, resolving complaints, making the practice run on time and being absorbed with the usual business of running a practice. 

This is the nature of our work, yes (often at a heightened level of drama with the pandemic), but are we exhibiting effective practice management? 

I mean, are we the most effective we can be? It’s often the adrenaline of a sprint each day, and solving problems on the go…but is this sustainable in the long term? Can we get through each day sprinting, if in reality, we are to pace ourselves for a marathon? Are we using the skill sets of Managers or Team Leaders? Are we actually leading or are we honorary senior administrators, filling in, patching over mistakes and doing it all over again the next day? 

Practice managers need healthy habits to be effective for the long term. We need to avoid the dreaded burn out- which is very real and quick to come by.  

I am no athlete, sprinter or marathon runner. I am guilty of drearily piling on the Covid kilos in 2020, after working 7 days a week and becoming very unhealthy.

It was during the start of the pandemic when I was in utter despair, and I reached out to find a coach to help me regain a good work-life balance.  

Alex is my coach, based all the way in Boston – and her influence has been amazing. I met her through a tough conversations challenge, which made me confront the issues I wanted to avoid. It’s a breath of fresh air to be supported and coached towards plans and goals.  

effective practice management quote

A coach is an investment in us. It is a form of self-care. Contrary to what many think, it’s also an investment in your team. When we are coachable, our needs are met, our tank gets rejuvenated and we can offer and perform more efficiently and exponentially. Having the accountability helps us to focus on what needs actioning. When we focus on changing the things in our control, we effectively work on the business.  

Some examples of the lasting changes and initiatives that Alex has lent herself towards instilling in me are: 

  • Monthly team meetings. We sit down and enjoy a lunch together. It has involved a treat (seafood market lunch, yum cha, local Uyghur food), team boding (trivia!) and planning.
  • Improving communication with morning huddles, debriefs at lunch, and 8am and 2pm update, especially useful during Covid-19 times.
  • Planning and meeting with each person intentionally every 6 months to help them reach their goals and mentor them through their journey.
  • Building an on-boarding framework for staff – from phone interviews, to face-to-face interviews, to a fully completed training program.
  • Training my team to take part in this leadership journey.

Demonstrating healthy habits has involved getting a ‘personal trainer’ in the professional field. When we are challenged to grow outside our comfort zone, to have tough conversations and to be intentional in our communication, we develop the culture of a supportive team built on strong, healthy foundations – and from there we exhibit more effective practice management.

Over time you will see the change.  

I am liberated with a work-life balance.  

Please reach out to let me know what you think. I would also love to hear from you and find out what keeps you going as a healthy practice manager!

Authored by:

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Dana Tse
Practice Manager at Campsie Medical Practice

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Real Time Prescription Monitoring – An Important Update

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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 and South Australian users of Bp Premier, with other states expected to come on board within the next 12-18 months.

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 as per below:

For further information about configuring RTPM at your Practice, visit the Bp Premier Knowledge Base.

Authored by:

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Jess White
Technical Writer at Best Practice Software

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Advantages vs. Disadvantages of Electronic Prescribing

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With nearly half the country experiencing snap or prolonged lockdowns and with widespread telehealth use, electronic prescriptions (ePrescriptions) have simplified the prescribing of medications for thousands of Doctors across Australia.  If you are not already using it, now is the time to visit this important change with your Practice Manager.

ePrescriptions are legal medication prescriptions that are electronically and securely transmitted to a prescription exchange service (Bp Premier is integrated with both eRx and MediSecure). A QR code token to access the ePrescription is sent to the patient by Best Practice Software via SMS or email. The ePrescription can then be downloaded from the exchange server by a pharmacist upon scanning the QR code token from the patient. ePrescriptions can be used for all prescription types including S8 and authority medications.

The Advantages:

  • Convenience – Removes the need for paper prescriptions and therefore the need for the patient to physically come to the practice.

  • Cost reduction – of mailing the original prescription to the pharmacy

  • Safety of medicines – especially if used in conjunction with prescription management apps

  • Presently there is no cost associated with sending the SMS tokens until June 2022 due to government subsidies.

The Disadvantages:

  • Following the conclusion of the governments SMS token subsidy in June 2022, there will be a cost to clinics associated with ePrescriptions

  • Patients can easily delete their prescriptions on their phone messages or emails, thereby needing to reissue prescriptions

What is needed to set up ePrescribing

  • Ensure your practice has a Healthcare Provider Identifier-Organisation (HPI-O) and is connected to the Health Identifiers Service.

  • Patient Health identifier and verification – ensure you have the patient’s consent to access this data.

  • Contact local pharmacies to ensure they can accept ePrescriptions. Currently > 98% pharmacies in Australia are capable of providing this service.

  • Ensure your patient is comfortable with using their phone or email to receive the QR code and understands the process. It is important to make it clear that once an electronic prescription is issued, all subsequent repeats are also issued electronically by the pharmacy.

It is important to note that a patient can either have an ePrescription OR a paper-based prescription for a medication (not both). If you have issued an ePrescription, and the patient requests a paper-based prescription, then the ePrescription will need to be cancelled first. This can be done by selecting the script in the “Past prescriptions” list or “Current Rx list” and selecting Delete.
If the patient has deleted the token or lost their phone, then the ePrescription can be re-sent from the Past Prescriptions list, using the re-print function.

If the patient has deleted the token or lost their phone, then the ePrescription will need to be canceled as described above and then reissued.

If you are interested to know more about how ePrescriptions work, you can access our training resources online here

There is also an RACGP video (CPD activity) about electronic prescriptions which you can view here

Extension of ePrescription SMS Funding
The funding of SMS ePrescriptions has been extended until the 30th of June 2022. This means you can continue to send electronic prescriptions to your Patients, with no additional cost to your Practice. Best Practice Software will also continue to provide ePrescription messages sent via our Best Health App, free of charge for all Best Health App customers (not funded by the Department of Health).

Image-Based Prescriptions
The Australian Department of Health has extended arrangements for image-based prescriptions until December 31st 2021. Image-based prescriptions allow Doctors to email, text or fax a digital image of a paper script to the patient’s pharmacy, without needing to supply a physical copy of the prescription.

We still encourage all Prescribers to adopt ePrescriptions to ensure you can continue to safely provide Patient Prescriptions electronically post December 31st 2021.

 

Authored by:

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Jess White
Commercial and Customer Enablement Manager at Best Practice Software

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Looking to Become a Data-Empowered Practice? – Cubikon 2021

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With the increasing use of data in the day-to-day operation of a medical practice, data is now paramount to the ongoing success of a medical practice. We are now seeing more and more practices around Australia use their data to gain insight into how they are performing and to make smarter business decisions.

Join Best Practice Software Gold Partner Cubiko and their all-star line-up on 1 October 2021 for an action-packed day that celebrates data. Gain the tools and insights from leading experts on how to become a data-empowered practice PLUS get 40 AAPM approved CPD points.

Join pioneers and veterans of the industry, as well as Bp Software’s very own Dr Frank Pyefinch, Jessica White and Dr John Aloizos AM Chairman of Cubiko as they discuss everything data. They’ll share how General Practice has changed over the last 30 years and they’ll share the steps you can take now to ensure you’re able to continue to adapt in this changing landscape.

Bp Software’s Leading Training Specialist, Bec Bland will also be taking the stage, as she presents an Advanced Data Cleansing session. She’ll unpack the importance of data quality, take you through how to clean up your existing data, and provide the tips and tricks for creating and promoting better quality data recording practices in your clinic.

You’ll walk away from the day with a key understanding of:

  • How Cubiko can help you make sense of the data within your practice
  • How to become a high-performing business
  • How to increase your billings
  • How you can use your data to deliver outstanding patient care
  • How to become data-empowered
  • How you can use data to empower your team

REGISTER NOW to learn how you can become a data-empowered practice.

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R U OK? Day 2021 – A Reflection on Mental Health

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Each year R U OK? Day reminds us to stay connected, have meaningful conversations and encourage more people to ask R U OK? at work, school and in the community. The website includes suggestions for simple steps that could save a life:

  1. Ask
  2. Listen
  3. Encourage action
  4. Check in

There are conversations tips, videos of how to ask and resources including how to find professional help if needed if the conversation becomes too big for family and friends.

Lifeline provides a directory of free or low cost health and community services available in Australia for areas such as domestic violence, family and children’s services, financial assistance and mental health services at lifeline.serviceseeker.com.au

The BeyondNow suicide safety plan app helps create a safety plan in crisis and distress for those in need, ideally with support us, as health professionals, or someone they trust, to work through when they are experiencing suicidal thoughts, feelings, distress or crisis. The app is available to download and to read further about the app, see beyondblue.org.au

moodGYM is an online self-help program that has been available since 2001, using cognitive behaviour training to develop skills to manage depression and anxiety symptoms. The program allows real-time self monitoring of problem moods, thoughts and behaviours via mobile phone or computer. Those using the programme monitor three symptoms of their choice or three recommended to them by myCompass through answering the profiling questionnaire ( eg stress, depression, confidence, worry, irritability, motivation, diet and medication use) See moodgym.com.au

myCompass is a self-help tool for mental health, providing proven techniques to help manage stress, anxiety and depression.

Here are some of the agencies that offer good support to those in need:

  • Lifeline, 1311 14 for 24/7 crisis support, the Suicide Call Back at 1300 659 467
  • kidshelpline at 1800 55 1800 for counselling to young people under 25 years
  • Griefline on 1300 845 745

Authored by Dr Lisa Surman

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