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