Visits with Referrals

Manually create a visit for a patient with a referral.

Before you begin

To receive incoming referrals, you must first enable referrals for your work area. For more information, see Set Up a Specialist for Incoming Referrals.

For self-referral or locum visits, you must enter the same provider number for your centre in both the Provider No. and Payee Provider No. fields in the Account Details > Provider details section. For more information, see Add a User and Provider details.

About this task

Create a visit with a referral and initiate the billing process for all types of visits.

Procedure

To create a visit with a referral:
  1. From the main menu, select Patient search iconPatient Search and add the visit details. For more information about adding the visit details, see Create a visit.
    Visit with referral
  2. From the Referral list, select either:
    • Referral required - if this visit requires a referral.
    • Self deemed - to refer yourself if you are a healthcare professional or for a locum.
      Tip:
      If you select this option, you do not need to provide further referral information, so the referral-related fields are not displayed.
    • Another option - other selections in the Referral menu are reasons that Medicare accepts for not providing a referral.
  3. To use a previous referral for the patient, from the R list, select the required referral.
  4. For a new referral, in the Refer to field, start typing the name of the healthcare professional to whom you want to refer the patient. From the list, select any HCP who:
    • Is in the Helix Address Book.
    • Is in the required specialty.
    • Has a provider number.
  5. In the Referred by field, search for the name or specialty of the HCP who referred the patient to your practice. This field searches the Helix Address Book for people or organisations. If an HCP is not found, add them to the Helix Address Book and search again.
  6. If required, to search for a specialist type by proximity:
    1. Set Near.
    2. In the Search by suburb field, enter a suburb.
    3. In the Referred by field, search for a specialty.
    4. Select from the specialists listed by proximity.
      Search for specialist type by proximity-Example
  7. In the Referral period field, select the time period for which the referral is valid. Helix uses this time period and the request date to calculate the date when the referral expires.
  8. If the visit is part of a care plan, in the Care Plan field, enter the number of the visits. For example, 1/10 for a mental health appointment.
  9. From the Create visit list, select either:
    • Create visit - creates a visit and adds it to the Patient Queue window.
    • Create visit - No queue - creates a visit and initiates a billing process without adding it to the Patient Queue.

Results

If you selected Create visit, a new visit is recorded with a new Visit ID and the patient is added to the Patient Queue.

If you selected Create visit - No queue, a new Visit ID is created for the patient in the Visit nav tabVisit panel.

What to do next

In the Patient Queue window:
  • To start a consult for the patient, click Start consult. For more information, see Consultations.
  • To initiate a billing process, select a patient and click Visit nav tabVisit in the floating navigation bar. For more information, see Initiate Billing.