General Practitioners
Simple. Straightforward. Secure referrals. Optimal patient care.
Should you be offering a home medicine review to your patients? HMR Referrals is the easy, intuitive service that matches GPs with credentialed HMR pharmacists to provide fast and effective home medicine reviews without the hassle.
Home Medicine Reviews For General Practitioners
Two-thirds of your patients aged 75 years and over will be eligible for a home medicine review (HMR), or DMMR. An HMR optimises the benefits of medications, improves patient understanding of their use, and aims to minimise any adverse effects that may affect their wellbeing.
Unfortunately, many GPs do not write referrals for HMRs because they don’t have a local Credentialed Pharmacist to refer to, the referral turnaround time is too long, or because of the poor quality of the report. Yet each year, more than 250,000 Australians go to hospital with problems caused by their medicines – half of these cases can be easily avoided by a simple home medicine review.
At HMR Referrals, our mission is to reduce medication misadventure by matching HMR GP requests with local credentialed pharmacists, providing secure messaging, quality reviews, and fast turnaround times – ensuring continuity of care and better patient outcomes.
How It Works
Step 1: Complete Patient HMR Referral
Contact HMR Referrals and gain access to a completely free, no obligation referral service that connects the HMR doctor to an accredited pharmacist nearby.
Step 2: Upload Your HMR Referral Online
Send your referral to HMR Referral via your preferred contact method, such as email, fax, Best Practice, Medical Director, HealthLink or INKA.
Step 3: Our Platform Matches Referral To Pharmacist
Our platform instantly matches your request to a credentialed HMR pharmacist who will arrange to conduct a comprehensive home medication review with your patient.
Step 4: Accredited Pharmacist Conducts Review & Sends To GP
The HMR pharmacist completes their review and submits a report directly to you. You can then review the recommendations and make amendments to the treatment plan that are necessary.
Step 4: GP Recalls Patient To Discuss Review & Bill Item 900
The HMR doctor then recalls the patient to discuss their treatment plan and bills MBS item 900.
Let HMR Referrals Connect You with the Right HMR Pharmacist
A credentialed pharmacist has an additional qualification to a community or retail pharmacist and is specially trained in medication management reviews. HMR Referrals has the largest number of credentialed HMR pharmacists across Australia ready to conduct home medicine reviews right away. The HMR Referrals service is free of charge to GPs and GP clinics, has quality control measures to ensure high quality, clinical reviews and encourages a fast turnaround from referral to review.
Why General Practitoners Choose HMR Referrals For Patient Care
Medication misadventure puts patients at risk of adverse reactions, suboptimal or ineffective treatment, or even hospitalisation. Thankfully, the home medication review process for GP medical professionals is made much easier with HMR Referrals. GPs send a referral directly to HMR Referrals, a local credentialed pharmacist picks up the referral, conducts the review, and then sends it back to the GP with their recommendations.
Continuity Of Patient Care
Home medication reviews are an under-utilised but vital part of ongoing patient care. Anytime a patient has recently been discharged from hospital, has experienced changes in their medication, has a complex medication regime, an adverse reaction, or simply doesn’t feel as well as they should, a GP can refer them for a medication review from a qualified pharmaceutical specialist.
Reduces Risk Of Hospitalisation
If medicines aren’t used properly, if the wrong ones are used together, or the patient is confused about their medications, the results can be serious. The Home Medicines Review (HMR) Program was developed in response to this problem and is regarded as an essential part of patient management, particularly for patients over the age of 75 or those on 5 or more medications.
Reduces Risk Of Medication Misadventure
Importantly, an HMR GP report ensures that your patients have a thorough knowledge of the medications they are taking and the correct way to administer them. If you are in any doubt as to your patient’s ability to take their medicines correctly you can refer them for a home medicines review.
Additional Revenue For GPs & Clinics
GPs and Clinics ensure their service is providing optimal care and earning valuable revenue under this government-backed program. HMRs are billed under MBS item 900.
Patient Eligibility
Eligibility is based on the range of potential risks that may predispose patients to adverse effects from their medications. An HMR is recommended in any of the following circumstances and not just the number of medications involved. For example, when the patient is:
taking five or more regular medications
taking more than 12 doses of medication per day
significant changes to medication within the last three months
a recent discharge from a facility / hospital (in the last four weeks)
experiencing symptoms suggestive of an adverse drug reaction
Have Questions?
Contact HMR Referrals to find out more, or register to start sending referrals for your eligible patients right away.