Pathway to COVID-19 antiviral treatments

The National Coronavirus Helpline, managed by Healthdirect Australia, is the first and most comprehensive service to notify GPs through clinical secure messaging when their patients are COVID-19 positive and potentially eligible for antiviral treatments. Co-funded by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, NSW Health, VIC Department of Health, Queensland Health and SA Health, this service is now being delivered across four states.

In New South Wales, all a COVID-19 positive patient needs to do is fill in the NSW Health survey and they are on the path to a possible prescription of antiviral medication.

General Practices (GPs), GP Respiratory Clinics (GPRCs) and Aboriginal Medical Services (AMSs) are notified by Healthdirect Australia when a person has registered a COVID-19 result and been assessed as being potentially eligible for antiviral treatment.

The patient’s GP — or a GPRC depending on availability – conducts a telehealth consultation to confirm eligibility for antiviral treatment and issue an electronic prescription. This service commenced in NSW on 12 May 2022 and more than 20,000 secure message notifications have since been sent to general practices, connecting consumers to integrated primary care pathways.

NSW Health’s COVID-19 Care in the Community Program Clinical Director, Dr Amith Shetty, said the streamlined process allows for the quicker prescribing of antivirals.

“NSW health worked closely with the Healthdirect team to develop this service, which uses technology to connect a patient with a GP to fast-track assessment and prescribing of these lifesaving medications. NSW Health’s COVID-19 Patient Flow Portal connects with Healthdirect’s system notifying GPs of a patient’s result within an average of five hours, enabling patients to commence oral antiviral treatment within the recommended five-day timeframe,” Dr Shetty said.

Flexible and responsive solutions

An adaptation of this model was launched in Queensland and South Australia on 11 July 2022, with Victoria coming on board on 1 August 2022. In these states, the consumer pathway starts when a person calls the National Coronavirus Helpline and is triaged for COVID-19 symptoms and risk factors along with an initial eligibility assessment for antiviral treatment by clinical call handlers. This information, subject to consent, is communicated to the consumer’s regular GP or GPRC via secure messaging, or a state’s virtual outreach ward, via real-time API.

“The National Coronavirus Helpline has received over 4.5 million calls since March 2020 and has been a consistent source of health information and advice throughout the pandemic. We’re now able to use the assets developed during COVID to continue to provide value to consumers, health practitioners and governments as we move beyond the pandemic,” says Ms McMahon.

Clinically robust and evidence-based health pathways

“Our assessment for antiviral treatment is based on the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce Guidelines and PBS eligibility criteria. We send the notification to the caller’s GP if they meet the eligibility criteria for antivirals and/or the appropriate risk stratification for a COVID-19 positive status GP notification,” says Dr Luckraj.

Time is critical for all COVID positive pathways to help eligible Australians start their antiviral treatment as soon as possible and within five days of symptom onset.

“To aid a fast response to the GP notification, the team at the National Coronavirus Helpline follow up the secure notifications we provide in all states with a phone call to the practice advising a notification has been sent via secure messaging. We also advise the caller to proactively call their GP within 24-hours to make a booking,” she says.

Across four states, Healthdirect Australia has triaged and connected 23,000 Australians to their GP or GPRC for antiviral treatment assessment and possible prescription.

Secure messaging for GP notifications

A key element of the service success is the ability for Healthdirect Australia to send GPs or GPRCs a secure digital notification that their patient has COVID-19, in addition to other clinically relevant information about the patient, their symptoms and risk factors identified by the clinical call handler.

This service was designed to utilise clinics’ electronic secure messaging solutions rather than traditional and less secure communication methods such as facsimile.

Not all practices have secure messaging enabled, so Healthdirect Australia, in conjunction with Primary Health Networks and the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, worked with practice managers to enable them to receive notifications to their practice management software.

This activity included ensuring practice information is accurate and up to date in their secure messaging vendor’s directory and in the National Health Services Directory, which played a critical part in the end-to-end secure messaging service.

Healthdirect uses Telstra Health systems to generate and send the secure messages, which are integrated with Healthdirect’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

A technology partnership between Healthdirect Australia and key leaders in the secure messaging provider industry, including Healthlink, Argus and Global Health (Referral Net), and with Medical Objects anticipated in the coming weeks, has resulted in secure messages successfully being sent to 85 per cent of General Practices.

The public can also self-assess for their eligibility for COVID-19 antiviral treatments using the COVID-19 Symptom and Antiviral Eligibility Checker. Users can check their COVID-19 symptoms and receive advice on the type of care they need and also find out if they may be eligible for antiviral medication.

If you’ve recently updated or added the COVID- 19 Symptom and Antiviral Eligibility Checker to your website — thank you!

If not, here are the instructions: COVID-19 assets and resources.