This is an important reminder to regularly review and action all Post Cataract episodes on your Clinical Dashboard and ‘Manage Referrals’ list on OPERA.
Please ensure the following steps are taken to establish patient safety and compliance:
- Daily monitoring of your clinical dashboard to ensure patient referrals are booked promptly.
- Contact patients in a timely manner to arrange appointments, ensuring contact attempts are recorded. If a patient’s appointment needs to be rearranged, the updated date can be recorded to reflect on the system: Changing referral appointment dates – OPERA
- Where appropriate, follow the FTE/DNA guidance in cases where patients cannot be contacted or do not attend: Failed to Engage (FTE), Did Not Attend (DNA) & Was Not Brought (WNB) Policy – OPERA
- Episodes that are overdue or no longer required should be returned to the hospital or closed.
- Patient episodes must be completed at the time of the appointment and no longer than 48 hours after the initial assessment.
- If the patient was assessed but the clinical report was not completed, you must alert the optometrist and request completion as soon as possible.
- If you require clinical or technical support in relation to booking appointments or recording FTE/DNA, please contact support via the Blue Bubble or hello@referral.support and provide the episode OPR number.
Please note that practices are responsible for monitoring their worklists and providing efficient care for patients transferred from hospital providers. Practices must ensure that no episodes are left unactioned for extended periods, as this may impact patient safety and compliance quality.
Full guidance providing further detail is attached. Please ensure all relevant team members are aware of the process.
We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining effective failsafe procedures and your continued commitment to delivering high quality patient care.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Kind regards,
Primary Eyecare Services
