FirstNet Message Centre

Make it a habit to check your message centre at the beginning and end of each shift!

Outstanding results

  • You are responsible for reviewing your patients’ outstanding results
  • There is no routine process for the lab or radiology to notify ED for most abnormal results
  • Activate the “unresulted tests for follow up” section in the discharge referral template to automatically display a list of outstanding results
  • Make specific reference in the discharge referral to what you want the GP to chase (and why!)
  • Let the patient know that they will have to go to their GP for the results.
  • Patients must not be told to ring or come back to ED for their results

(Occasionally you may arrange to follow up a test result yourself and phone the patient – always make sure you put in place a back-up plan in case you forget).

 Radiology

  • A report issued during the patient’s stay may be “provisional”
    • These may be updated when the radiology consultant reviews them
  • Let the patient know of this possibility, and get them to follow up with their GP

Pathology

  • Blood results take varying lengths of time
  • Urine and blood cultures can be expected to take 2-3 days
  • Only critical results will be notified to the ED – positive blood cultures are one of the few examples

Patient Follow Up

  • Check your results inbox in eMR (FirstNet )at the beginning and end of each shift.
  • If you find a result that needs follow up, consult a senior clinician for advice
  • Document in EMR any follow up that you do
  • You can also follow your ED patients after admission or discharge by adding them to your own custom “patient list” in eMR