The ACC GP MRI pathways support GPs to make direct referrals for MRIs.
The pathways focus on patients with knee and back (cervical and lumbar spine) injuries.
Accredited GPs can now follow nationally ratified guidelines to refer directly to radiology services for MRI investigations.
As these pathways are still relatively new, oversight continues to be provided by a clinical governance group.
The programme is also supported by a project lead within Pinnacle to ensure it continues to deliver a high-quality service to patients, and that referrers have the support they need to navigate the referral process.
All GP referrals are audited for adherence to guidelines and feedback is provided by auditors to support and develop those referring. Referral patterns and outcomes are continuously monitored and reported to ACC and the Pinnacle board.
Please note this programme of work was previously known as ACC HTI (high tech imaging) and has been renamed by ACC to General Practitioner Referred Magnetic Resonance Imaging aka GPMRI and will be referred to as this moving forward.
Your Pinnacle Services Contract applies to this service. By claiming for this service, you have indicated that you have read and agreed to the business rules set out here.
This is NOT a clinical guideline.
Any Pinnacle practice who has an accredited GP(s) using these referral pathways can claim for this service.
Pinnacle is responsible for providing accreditation (practical training) for GPs to use the ACC GP MRI referral pathways. Their role is also to support referrers and radiology providers through the referral process, to manage service quality through clinical governance and audit functions and reimburse GPs for the services they provide.
GPs must complete practical training in order to be accredited to use these referral pathways. All referrals must be made via Profusion. Outcome data required by the ACC contract must be completed within your PMS. A claim for services provided can be made at the same time as outcome data is provided.
All patients who meet the eligibility criteria of the pathway can have access to this service.
The four clinical pathways can be accessed via the ACC GP MRI toolkit.
Patients who do not meet ALL eligibility criteria for a pathway cannot access this service.
The potential service fee that can be claimed:
Outcomes must be completed by a GP or nurse at the practice. To receive payment for an MRI referral, the outcome needs to be added to the request in Profusion.
If you have any problems processing the outcome for a patient please contact the Profusion helpdesk team on 09 374 6759.
Referral data must be provided as per the referral template in Profusion.
Clinical notes in the form of outcome data template completion is required. (Detailed instructions included in practical training session).
The patient will pay the original consultation fee (ACC). The patient will not be charged for the consultation post imaging which will explain the treatment journey moving forward.
The service is funded by ACC.
Sally Newell, Regional Support Manager - Clinical Contracts
sally.newell@pinnacle.health.nz
021 150 8788
Diagnostic pathways and referral steps for the ACC GP MRI programme.
The ACC high tech imaging (HTI) pathway supports GPs to make direct referrals for high tech imaging (namely MRIs).
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