[1][2] E-referrals have fast become the best replacement of paper-based referrals, and hold great potential toward the ultimate goal of seamless communication and information sharing between practitioners.
Firstly at the patient level, e-referrals ensure significant improvements to follow-up care coordination[4] by the creation of accurate and timely referrals.
[6] The speed of communication is improved by removing delays related to paper-based transmission, ensuring a faster response rate.
These include the high start-up costs such as that of hardware, software and training needed to produce, process, send and receive each electronic referral.
The e-referral project was put in place to allow for a more cost-effective way of treating a bigger number of patients, increase productivity and to improve access to healthcare.
This TeleMed project aimed to expand the electronic communication between health service parties, and e-referrals were a part of this.
The project aimed to "provide complete and relevant referral information electronically and make it available to practitioners involved in the patient's care to allow prompt and appropriate clinical decision-making.
Approximately thirty General practitioners from the Australian Capital Territory used the electronic system to refer to sixty outpatient service specialists.