Transforming Outpatient Services at Alfred Health with Digital Referrals with Victorian Statewide Referral Criteria.

Alfred Health, one of Victoria’s premier healthcare providers, is leading a major shift in how specialist referrals are managed. Spanning The Alfred, Caulfield Hospital and Sandringham Hospital, the organisation delivers 18 statewide services and manages more than 275,000 specialist clinic appointments and more than 80,000 new referrals each year. Yet until recently, only 12% of external referrals to specialist clinics were electronic, leaving most referrals reliant on paper, fax, and phone calls.

To address this challenge, Alfred Health conducted a competitive tender process to identify a partner capable of delivering a modern, secure, and scalable digital referral solution. Consultmed was selected as the preferred provider and engaged to implement its platform across Alfred Health’s three campuses and extensive network of community programs.

The implementation aimed to give referrers, patients, and carers clearer visibility of the referral journey, reduce the significant administrative burden on staff, and establish faster, more reliable pathways from general practice into hospital specialist care.

From Paper to Digital Pathways

In just nine months, Alfred Health successfully rolled out digital referrals across more than 100 specialist outpatient clinics at The Alfred, Sandringham Hospital, and Caulfield Hospital’s Home, Acute, and Community services. As part of the implementation, over 40 highly tailored referral forms were developed, including 20 aligned with the Victorian Statewide Referral Criteria.

Consultmed’s integrated Smart Forms and Referral Management System eliminated the inefficiencies of paper-based forms and faxing by enabling:

• Structured referrals with automatic acknowledgements, reducing the risk of duplication or delays
• Pre-populated patient details and built in referral criteria, which help referrers meet clinic requirements and improve the quality of information received
• Real time notifications for patients and carers, giving families clear visibility of key milestones in their referral journey
• Automated workflows for administrative staff, reducing manual handling and follow up phone calls while supporting accurate reporting and planning

In addition to digitising referral processes, Alfred Health has also adopted Consultmed’s Advice & Guidance™ module for their Endocrinology, Diabetes and Gastroenterology services. Through this model of care, GPs and other primary healthcare providers can submit a request for specialist Advice & Guidance, instead of needing an unnecessary outpatient referral. Alfred specialists in turn respond with Advice & Guidance within 3 business days. This allows GPs to seek timely input to support patient management without the need for an immediate outpatient appointment, helping many patients remain in the care of their trusted GP.

Collaborative Co-Design and Implementation

As part of the project, Consultmed worked closely with Alfred Health clinicians, administrators, and local GPs across South Eastern Melbourne to co-design and implement the platform. This collaborative approach ensured that the solution was clinically relevant, operationally practical, and aligned with existing workflows.

South East Melbourne GP Dr Adam Braithwaite, was supportive of the change:

“I’ve found Consultmed’s integration with MedicalDirector via widget to be remarkably smooth with its fast, user-friendly interface and real-time confirmations adding features well beyond traditional faxed referrals.

The asynchronous specialist Advice & Guidance feature is particularly impressive, offering timely, practice guidance that often helps sound unnecessary referrals to public outpatient departments,”

The implementation process involved refining platform features, strengthening integrations with GP practice management systems, and configuring referral pathways to improve efficiency and patient access. Dedicated workshops and iterative testing cycles were conducted with frontline users to validate functionality, embed feedback, and support adoption.

For Alfred Health staff, integration with their patient record system (iPM) and their Electronic Medical Record (Oracle Cerner) was a key milestone. Integration with these key patient and clinical systems was completed within 4 months of the project commencing. This has enabled incoming referrals received through Consultmed to     be exported directly into the patient record with a few clicks, eliminating manual data entry and allowing referral information to be captured accurately and promptly.

Alfred Health’s partnership with Consultmed shows how collaborative design, careful technical integration, and a focus on patient transparency can replace outdated paper systems with a modern, data driven referral network. By connecting primary care providers and hospital services through secure digital pathways and embedding direct Cerner EMR integration, the project is creating a faster, clearer and more connected experience for patients, carers, clinicians and administrative teams alike.

Read more about the Alfred Health roll-out in Pulse+IT
Alfred Health advancing with eReferrals

To learn more about sending digital referrals to Alfred Health, visit the Alfred Health eReferral webpage.