Wandi Nerida’s Digital Transformation with Consultmed and Partners.

Introduction

Wandi Nerida, Australia’s first residential eating disorder recovery centre, has taken a major step in its digital transformation journey. Located in Queensland’s Mooloolah Valley and operated by the Butterfly Foundation, Wandi Nerida is a 13-bed private hospital that delivers care through the BFREEDT model. This model of care allows for tailored, phased treatment plans to suit each participant’s individual needs.

In 2025, Wandi Nerida successfully went live with an integrated digital medical record (DMR) system. CEO Brian Mayahle described the implementation as a “significant leap forward” in delivering seamless, patient-centred care. He emphasised that the new system “enhances operations and delivers a connected healthcare experience by improving referral pathways and creating smooth workflow processes.”

The transformation was made possible through a best-of-breed collaboration between four leading digital health platforms—Vitro Software, Personify Care, Altura Health, and Consultmed.

The Challenge

Prior to this implementation, Wandi Nerida’s systems relied on paper records, siloed communications, and manual processes. This created friction in referral and admission workflows, inefficiencies in administrative tasks, and risks of delayed or incomplete information sharing.

As Wandi Nerida’s Operations Director Danielle Dougherty noted, “By integrating these advanced systems, we can provide better, more efficient care, reduce administrative tasks, and ensure the best possible outcomes for our participants.”

The Best-of-Breed Collaboration

Four platforms worked together to deliver a single, integrated solution:

• Vitro Software (Vitro DMR): Provided the backbone of the digital medical record, transforming paper records into digital files with real-time entry and access to participant information.
• Personify Care: Implemented the digital front door for pre-admission engagement, allowing staff to send, monitor, and manage participant care pathways before admission
• Altura Health (Fydo PAS): Delivered the patient administration system with informed financial consent, health fund reporting, and customised reports tailored to Wandi Nerida’s requirements.
• Consultmed: Enabled secure, structured, and electronic referral pathways, replacing fax and email with an auditable, clinician-friendly eReferral solution.

The collaborative effort was described by Doughtery as creating “a seamless, collaborative system” that clinicians can rely on for access to complete participant records anytime and anywhere.

Consultmed’s Role in Transforming Referrals

Consultmed’s contribution focused on addressing pain points in the referral and admission process. Together with Wandi Nerida clinicians, Consultmed co-designed digital referral forms tailored to eating disorder care, available here: Submit a referral. The forms incorporated required fields, clinical prompts, and validation rules aligned with resources such as the Queensland Eating Disorder Service (QuEDS) Admission Guide.

Key Improvements Delivered by Consultmed

• Single digital intake: All referrals are captured in one structured form with attachments embedded, eliminating inbox trawling.
• Guided submissions: Validation rules ensure referrers provide risk-relevant details, improving safety and triage quality.
• Transparent triage: Admissions staff work from structured queues with status updates, acknowledgements, and secure communication back to referrers.
• AI-assisted data entry: Consultpilot AI extracts key data from uploaded PDFs, reducing manual transcription.
• Pre-admission coordination: Integrated with Personify Care to send consents and screening tools directly to participants in a structured sequence.

• System interoperability: Connected with Altura’s Fydo PAS and Vitro DMR via HL7 interfaces, ensuring referral and triage data flow directly into the clinical record.
• Secure discharge communication: Reports and Advice & Guidance are returned to referrers through Consultmed, creating a complete audit trail.

Illustrative Patient Journey and Outcomes 

Mia, 24, lives in Townsville and has been receiving community treatment for her eating disorder. When inpatient care became the next step, her GP referred her to Wandi Nerida through the Consultmed referral portal. Using the customised digital referral form, her GP attached test results and provided key safety details, which were instantly received by the admissions team in a structured record.

Ahead of her admission, Mia received pre-admission questionnaires and consents digitally via Personify Care. By the time she arrived at Wandi Nerida, her Vitro clinical record was already populated with the data gathered during referral and pre-admission, ensuring a smooth transition into care.

During her admission, clinical notes, treatment progress, and multidisciplinary reviews were documented directly into Vitro and securely shared with her treating team. This included her GP, community mental health professionals, and her dietician, ensuring that those supporting her ongoing recovery had up-to-date information. Letters generated within the system were distributed electronically through Consultmed, providing timely updates and reducing reliance on post or fax.

At discharge, Mia’s summary report was automatically compiled and shared through Consultmed’s secure channel with her GP and wider treating team. A copy was also provided to Mia and her family, giving them clear visibility of her treatment progress, next steps, and follow-up plan.

Mia’s journey illustrates how the integrated system reduces handoffs, avoids duplication, and creates a calmer, more predictable process for patients, families, and clinicians. As a Wandi Nerida spokesperson observed, “the integration of these platforms allows us to provide a seamless, connected healthcare experience for participants and staff alike…this initiative aligns with Queensland Health’s vision to create a more digitally connected healthcare system.”

For more detail on the Wandi Nerida rollout, you can read about the staged implementation in Pulse+IT:
Wandi Nerida makes move to secure message platform

Wandi Nerida live with integrated best-of-breed DMR solution