title: Online referral and OPD booking from the GP desktop.
abstract: The Brisbane Inner South E-referral Project (BISEP) developed an application which allowed general practitioners, from their desktop, to successfully search for and book an available hospital outpatient appointment for patients with suspected cancer, send the referral electronically, and inform the patient of both the appointment and referral during the consultation. The hospital changed their outpatient department processes to allow such functionality for local GPs with patients with suspected cancer, working from a mutually agreed set of best practice referral criteria. A group of 19 GPs participated in an 11-week pilot implementation of the application, and were enthusiastic about continuing and expanding the approach. Patient satisfaction measures post intervention indicated that they perceived no major disadvantage in this form of outpatient department referral.
authors.affiliation: Mater Health Services, Brisbane, Community Services Building, Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia. Caroline.Nicholson@mater.org.au
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: Claire L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mainwaring
authors.forename: Dimity
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holliday
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lankowski
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kardash
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011793:Queensland; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018511:Systems Integration