❓ An inquiry into the Central Referral Service (CRS) implementation, costs, and operational effectiveness, particularly regarding obstetric referrals and electronic processing capabilities. The response provides details on funding, costs, scope changes, and processing times.
AnsweredQoN 2241Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to Central Referral Service (CRS) introduced at the start of the year for all General Practitioners (GPs) and private specialists referring patients for their initial specialist outpatients in the public health system and ask: (a) how much money was originally allocated by WA Health to establish the CRS; (b) what has been the actual total cost of the CRS to WA Health to date; (c) is it true that obstetric services have reverted back to GPs referring directly to hospitals after only one month of participating in the CRS, and if so why; (d) are any other outpatient services no longer participating in CRS; (e) can you provide the average turn-around times for processing referrals under both the old system, and under CRS; and (f) is the CRS system capable of processing paperless (completely electronic) referrals from all General Practices software systems to all Western Australian public hospitals, including those still using Topas?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
10 June 2014
Responded by
Minister for Health
Response time
35 days
On 24 February 2014, the Department of Health commenced its new Central Referral Service (CRS) to better manage external referrals for patients requiring a first specialist medical outpatient appointment within the public health system.
The service represents a fundamental change to the way in which referrers, mostly General Practitioners, currently refer their patients for initial specialist outpatient appointments.
(a) As part of the National Health Reform Agreement - National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services, $10 million was allocated for the Elective Service Reform Program under the Schedule A National Elective Surgery Target. $6.7 million was allocated for the CRS which is part of the Elective Service Reform Program.
(b) As at 30 April 2014, actual cost to date for the CRS project is $ 1.2 million.
(c) As of 28 March 2014, the decision was made that obstetric referrals be out of scope for the CRS due to the potential clinical risk for this cohort of patients.
(d) Obstetrics is the only change to the CRS scope since the service became operational.
(e) The average turn-around time for referrals received and processed at the CRS is currently approximately 1-2 working days. Hospital timeframes for referral processing are variable and dependent on factors such as referral volume received and specialist availability to triage referrals.
Previous referral systems were managed individually by each hospital site and timeframes varied between sites and between specialties. Referrals were not consistently captured electronically in an automated manner; therefore accurate timeframes are not available for these systems.
(f) The CRS system receives referrals via fax, mail or via electronic secure messaging. Whilst the majority of referrals are currently received via fax, the CRS has an automated electronic system that converts faxed referrals into an electronic format which is then distributed to metropolitan hospitals.
The CRS is currently working on a bidirectional secure messaging solution to increase the availability of electronic referral pathway functionality to all medical General Practices.
The service represents a fundamental change to the way in which referrers, mostly General Practitioners, currently refer their patients for initial specialist outpatient appointments.
(a) As part of the National Health Reform Agreement - National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services, $10 million was allocated for the Elective Service Reform Program under the Schedule A National Elective Surgery Target. $6.7 million was allocated for the CRS which is part of the Elective Service Reform Program.
(b) As at 30 April 2014, actual cost to date for the CRS project is $ 1.2 million.
(c) As of 28 March 2014, the decision was made that obstetric referrals be out of scope for the CRS due to the potential clinical risk for this cohort of patients.
(d) Obstetrics is the only change to the CRS scope since the service became operational.
(e) The average turn-around time for referrals received and processed at the CRS is currently approximately 1-2 working days. Hospital timeframes for referral processing are variable and dependent on factors such as referral volume received and specialist availability to triage referrals.
Previous referral systems were managed individually by each hospital site and timeframes varied between sites and between specialties. Referrals were not consistently captured electronically in an automated manner; therefore accurate timeframes are not available for these systems.
(f) The CRS system receives referrals via fax, mail or via electronic secure messaging. Whilst the majority of referrals are currently received via fax, the CRS has an automated electronic system that converts faxed referrals into an electronic format which is then distributed to metropolitan hospitals.
The CRS is currently working on a bidirectional secure messaging solution to increase the availability of electronic referral pathway functionality to all medical General Practices.
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