> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Greg Twyford > Sent: Monday, 27 February 2006 11:52 AM
> Duncan Guy wrote: > > > > Question - if Doctor A writes in the progress notes - refer > to Dr B is that a valid referral? > > > > Each Dr has their own unique logon - every entry into the EMR is > > labelled, dated and time as being entered by that Dr. Greg Twyford replied: > Either it's a written-on-paper, signed-in-ink, referral or if it's > electronic it has to be signed electronically with the referring > doctor's HeSA supplied-Medicare Australia approved individual signing > key, the famous, but least-used piece of technology in the health > sector, the RAINBOW iKey [dongle]. Greg, I think that if we looked at what is actually happening around Australia, many GPs and specialists are simply politely ignoring Medicare Australia's wish for electronic referrals to be signed with individual digital certificates, and are just getting on the with the job of caring for patients, as Duncan's group is doing. A local specialist told me just the other day that his group is doing exactly this - they are accepting referrals without digital signatures and using them for Medicare benefits purposes. It sounds to me that the system used by Duncan's group of specialists provides reasonable evidence that a referral was made. I believe that Medicare Australia would not and will not dare to try to prosecute any specialist who used such a referral to issue an account which can be used by the patient for the higher Medicare benefits payable for a referred service, because it would be howled down in public by the whole profession as obstructing the delivery of health care with inappropriate and unworkable bureaucratic rules. It's a bit like the Berlin wall - suddenly, just by a kind of mass civil disobedience the whole thing (in this case, digital signing) is seen as irrelevant and unnecessary and everybody just gets on with doing the job that needs to be done. Oliver Frank, general practitioner 255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens South Australia 5086 Ph. 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
