Improved NHSD Service Finder widget

The healthdirect Service Finder is a consumer-facing searchable tool powered by the National Health Services Directory.

Available for free via an embeddable widget, health organisations can provide website visitors reliable up-to-date information about healthcare services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Improved user functionality

There have been a number of recent enhancements to the Service Finder which are automatically available in all widgets embedded on health service websites and applications.

Users can now find a GP and link through to book the next available appointment online at more than 5000 GP practices.

This new feature is possible through data-sharing partnerships and API integration with online appointment booking providers. It has added significant value to the widget functionality and provided additional data sources for the directory to benchmark the quality of its GP data against.

Other new widget features include:

• ability to search for healthcare services and practitioners by name — searching practitioners by name returns all services that the practitioner is linked to in the NHSD
• ability to filter for ‘telehealth available’ services
• healthcare service description displays in the service details screen, including after-hours information where provided
• practitioner details display in the service details screen, including name, gender, specialty and languages spoken (note that practitioner information only displays in the widget if the practitioner has consented).

COVID-19 testing clinics

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Service Finder widget has been used as an effective tool in providing information for the National Coronavirus Helpline and the healthdirect COVID-19 Symptom Checker to direct users to their nearest testing clinic when that is the appropriate advice.

Data on more than 400 COVID-19 testing clinics received from state and territory health departments have been added to the NHSD. The NHSD team continue to add and update COVID-19 testing clinic data as it is received.

Many Primary Health Networks, healthdirect Information Partners, hospitals and other health services already have the Service Finder widget embedded on their websites.

Designed with customisable components, responsiveness and a simple installation process, the widget is easy to embed on any website or mobile app. For information about accessing the Service Finder widget, please email nhsd@healthdirect.org.au.