• The Dropbox is a light weight application that allows you to send referral or consultation notes in a secure encrypted channel for a colleague to access in their account on Bluebird's clinical web service.

• The information is routed using the HPCSA number. If that doctor does not exist on the Bluebird service we email and SMS your colleague to tell them the report is waiting for them. Once they have registered they will be able to access your note.

• The Dropbox also sends a copy to your account so that you can access your clinical information (including notes you have sent) on the secure web service.

• Currently the Dropbox has built in referral and consultation forms, but you can also drop (onto the desptop icon) MS Word documents and PDF files. If there is demand, we will produce a range of specialty consultation reports, and even allow one to upload dictation to the web service. Watch this space.

Existing shortcomings in communication between colleagues

• Referrals: Usually brief notes, scribbled in shorthand on a prescription pad and handed to the patient. Besides often not reaching the specialist, the information, if legible, is seldom in sufficient detail to assist the consultation. Occasionally, the dedicated referring doctor will attempt to phone the consultant, but that brings its own set of problems (telephone tag, quick notes scribbled by the consultant on pieces of paper which are then mislaid, and so forth).

• ConsultationsI  deally, each time a specialist sees a patient, a note should be forwarded to the GP. Commonly, these notes are dictated, transcribed, checked for mistakes, printed and snail mailed. In many practices this process is measured in weeks rather than hours.
  
  Besides the time delay, the process (excluding physician time!) is expensive for the specialist practice:
  a. Printing, paper, envelope R 3.50
  b. Stamp R 2.00
  
  Assuming 20 patients /day this adds a minimum of R100.00 to the daily practice overheads.

The solution to the medical communication problem

Bluebird's Dropbox !

• A gateway from your PC to Bluebird's secure website

• You can literally drop files onto the Bluebird icon on your desktop and they will be encrypted and moved to Bluebird's secure website where they are only accessible to you and doctors you give access.
• The dropbox converts the file format so it can be read on the web - currently we handle MSWord and PDF documents, but we will be introducing the ability to move audio files to the Bluebird transcription service.
• The dropbox is very lightweight and easily installed and managed (no expensive technical expertise required)
• Besides your own MSWord documents, Bluebird provides standandized referral and consultation templates in MSWord.
• Templates for all specialities are being added to the dropbox and these templates allow cutomisable drop down lists.
• The dropbox can interrogate your practice billing software and pull patient data from there, thus saving you time.

• The consulting specialist always has access to a formal referral note.
• Documentation of any medical encounter is available to the referring doctor within 24 hrs.
• The cost is minimal.
• Documentation is accessible from anywhere (the rooms, home, even when on the move).
• Access does not require proprietary software.
• Cumulative organization of referrals / consultations / lab work / imaging allows the doctor quick access to historic patient information.
• Patient confidentiality is assured.
• Templates that specify the minimum subset of data required for collegial communication are available.
• Sent documents are displayed on a secure website accessible only to the doctor sending the report and to the doctor/s to whom the document was addressed. This website would use the internet banking model to ensure security. A working example can be found at http://zeus.bluebird.co.za – use demo as both account name and password

• Bluebird is obsessive about patient confidentiality.  This really needs to be 'information with integrity'. This is why only the sending and receiving doctor have access to the clinical note.  A data repository where any doctor has access to any patient's medical information is not only ethically unsound; it also undermines the implicit trust contract in the patient / doctor relationship, which in turn undermines the doctor's ability to ensure optimal patient care. This is an important concept and must trump the convenience of any doctor having access to any other doctor's notes on a patient they are about to see. In a sophisticated environment arguably the patient should have the final say as to who has access to his or her medical record.

• Click here to download the application forms for your practice
  Open, print, complete and fax the forms to 0866 70 80 74