HealthLink, eReferral Information

View current Mercy Health referral guidelines here and please note that these will be changing soon. The statewide referral criteria provides guidance to referring clinicians about which patients will be seen in adult public specialist clinics and what investigations are required to support triage. All clinics and services will be changing over to the match the statewide criteria.

HealthPathways Melbourne provides clinicians with a single website to access clinical and referral pathways, and resources. Pathways are created by local GPs, working in partnership with specialists, nurses, allied health and other health professionals.

Mercy Health recommends clinicians to access HealthPathways Melbourne for guidance in assessing, managing and referring for patient conditions (login required).

Referrals to outpatient clinics at Mercy Health will be triaged against clinical information and investigations based on these guidelines.

Referrals that do not meet the required clinical information and investigations will not be accepted.

HealthPathways Melbourne is available for free to health professionals working in the North Western Melbourne and Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network catchments.

Email HealthPathways to request access or if you need to confirm your username and password.

HealthLink is a secure digital platform for sending referrals directly from your GP practice software (Best Practice, Genie, Medical Director and MedTech Evolution).

Practices without conformant software can register for a free HealthLink Portal licence by completing the online registration form and noting in the comments/message field that you would like to use the SmartForms, then selecting the two checkboxes – (1) Receive Electronic Correspondence (free of charge) and (3) Send Electronic Smart Forms (My Aged Care, Transport for NSW, Monash Health etc).

Once HealthLink receives your completed registration application, this will be processed and the portal details will be forwarded to you.

eReferral Support Contact Information

• For GPs in the Eastern Melbourne Primary Healthcare Network region wanting to enable eReferrals (HealthLink Smartforms), please contact [email protected]or if urgent (03) 9046 0300.
• For GPs in the North Western Melbourne Primary Healthcare Network region wanting to enable eReferrals (HealthLink Smartforms), please contact HealthLink via phone: 1800 125 036 or email [email protected]
• For issues with HealthLink SmartForms, or to have this solution enabled within your clinical software system, please contact HealthLink on 1800 125 036 or [email protected].

The Department of Health and Human Services has developed statewide referral criteria to assist GPs and clinicians referring patients to specialist clinics. These referral criteria have been developed to improve access to specialist clinics in public hospitals by improving the quality and appropriateness of referrals.

The Managing referrals to non-admitted specialist services in Victorian public health services policy outlines the government’s expectations of service delivery, including indicative timeframes for the implementation of key processes relating to specialist clinics.