The new standard in specialist care
St Vincent’s Priority
St Vincent's Priority is an online referral service which enables patients and GP's to view available specialist appointment times online, in real time, and make instant bookings for a VMO at our private hospitals.
St Vincent's Priority was developed to deliver an improved customer experience for patients and GP's at St Vincent's and help grow the practices of our VMO's, in an increasingly challenging private health market.
Growing your referrals through St Vincent’s Priority
In light of a challenging private health market, and rapidly growing consumer confidence in and use of digital sources of health information, our marketing and business development teams have been actively focusing on developing new initiatives to help grow VMO's practices, and drive demand to St Vincent's services.
St Vincent's Priority was launched at our NSW hospitals at the end of 2019, and Northside in QLD during 2021. Despite COVID, we saw strong uptake by VMO's and strong usage by GP's and patients in the last two years, with over 90,000 visitors and more than 7000 VMO appointments made with our participating specialists.
What is St Vincent’s Priority?
St Vincent's Priority enables potential patients and GP's the ability to search for, and book an appointment online with, participating St Vincent's specialists. Referral paperwork, scans and test results can be attached electronically with the booking and to the appointment in your Practice Management Software. GPs can be notified on the patient's progress from booking through to consultation, helping them to remain part of the patient's care journey.
The service provides more convenient access to care for patients, offers a streamlined digital referral pathway for GP's and delivers ongoing lead generation for a VMO and their practice.
St Vincent's is the first private hospital network in Australia to offer patients and GPs the ability to find and book an appointment online for specialist care.
Why join St Vincent’s Priority?
- CONVENIENCE: With over 55% of online bookings made after hours, St Vincent's Priority allows access to VMO appointments care 24/7, in real-time. Patients and GP's can check the availability of, and confirm a booking with, a specialist within minutes, not weeks.
- MORE CHOICE: Patients and GP's have been asking for more choice around how, where and when they engage with specialists and want access to care, faster. Enabling online bookings can give you access to a patient base or referral base you may not have tapped before.
- LESS ADMIN FOR YOUR STAFF: Your Practice Managers have more time to focus on face to face patient service in your offices and less on booking admin.
- VISIBILITY: St Vincent's is investing not only in the technology and set up, but also in actively marketing the service to ensure you're top of mind for GP's when they make care decisions. You will benefit from dedicated marketing campaigns designed to drive high volumes of GP referrals and prospective patients to www.stvincentspriority.com.au. Visibility of specialist availabilities is compelling for patients, who are frustrated with the speed with which they can get access to care. St Vincent's Priority helps make patients feel more empowered and in control of the process.
- REACH: Leverage the thousands of patients searching St Vincent's Priority every month looking for specialist care, allowing St Vincent's specialists to put their practice in front of more potential patients.
- GROWTH: Strong growth in Priority appointment bookings at St Vincent’s private hospitals in both NSW and QLD, clearly show that an easy and convenient referral service has the potential to grow demand for your services by helping you acquire more bookings.
The service will drive demand for VMO services in an increasingly competitive market, address patient and GP frustrations around convenient access to care, as well as streamline the current referrals process.
For Patients
St Vincent’s Priority allows patients to search and book an available appointment with the Specialist of choice online.
Patients will be able to search and book an appointment with you online.
Patients can search for an appointment type by location, specialty and sub-specialty. You can also search by your preferred date range.
Appointments are displayed in order of availability, so they can see the first available appointment, as well as other appointment options.
Their referral letter and other important documents - such as scans and test results - can be sent securely to the specialist practice during the booking process.
Register Your InterestFor GPs
St Vincent’s Priority allows GPs to search and book an available appointment with the Specialist of choice online.
Like patients, GPs will be able to search and book an appointment for their patients online.
GPs are able to search and book on behalf of their patient via the St Vincent's Priority platform.
In doing so, they are also able to upload their referral letter and any relevant documentation direct to the selected Specialist.
The referral is transferred securely electronically to the specialists practice management software system, ensuring a seamless and efficient booking experience for the patient.
In addition, the GP is also notified via email when the appointment has been made.
Register Your Interest
For Specialists
St Vincent’s Priority allows specialists to list available appointments from their diary online.
To make your available appointments visible on St Vincent's Priority, MyHealth1st will integrate their online booking technology with your practice management software.
This will enable the MyHealth1st algorithm to display your available appointments in real time. This does not require your staff to set aside appointments specifically for St Vincent's Priority, as the algorithm will scan your diary and only match diary availability to the patient's search query within the booking engine.
You and your staff have full control over what you allow the booking engine to see. The service can be customised to reflect the length of your appointments, the number and and type of appointments, the information you require from the patient to book an appointment with you, and the information you wish to provide in the booking confirmation emails.
What do I need to do to get started?
- Register your interest
- Ensure you provide details about your Practice Management Software when you register.
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A MyHealth1st representative will reach out to you to schedule a meeting time.
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At that meeting, the Business Development Manager at your SVHA Private Hospital, and the MyHealth1st representative will run through a series of questions to better understand your practice and how the St Vincent’s Priority service will work for you.
- MyHealth1st will then follow up to commence your practice setup, including your customisation requirements, collecting information for your profile, and test bookings before you are live and ready to take online appointments.For Specialists
Which St Vincent’s hospitals are already involved?
In NSW, St Vincent’s Priority has been rolled out at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Sydney, Mater Hospital and St Vincent’s Private Community Hospital, Griffith.
In QLD, the service is available at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Northside.
Where do I get more information or sign up?
You can register your interest today by clicking on the link below, and a representative will then be in touch to arrange a suitable meeting time to discuss the opportunity, provide a demonstration of the service and to answer any questions you may have.
Register Now
Register your interest in being part of St Vincent’s Priority today.
Frequently Asked Questions
1st Group uses Australian based servers and does not share any patient contact data with third parties unless practice clients or patient users have given specific consent. The type of data sharing which 1stGroup does engage in, if permission is given, is limited and designed to benefit practice clients and enable 1stGroup to deliver and improve its services.
Practices benefit from these improved 1stGroup services including more efficient booking activity and effective distribution of promotional material. In turn, this enhances Patient and GP relationships.
Please contact MyHealth1st on 1300 266 517 or via email on info@MyHealth1st.com.au to discuss any questions you may have about this fantastic initiative to grow your practice.
Only available appointment slots in the PMS can be seen by MyHealth1st’s platform. This means that patient data, offline appointment details or scheduling commitments are completely out of view from MyHealth1st. As each specialist has their own set of discrete needs, the service can be customised to reflect:
- The length of appointments, e.g. 15 min, 30 min, 60 min, 90 min intervals.
- The practice policies, such as the type of patients you wish to see, or your costs per appointment and cancellation policies. These appear at the beginning of the booking form. Booking confirmation emails will also reiterate the practice policies.
- Practice and practitioner profile description.
- You'll have the opportunity to grow your business: With over 55% of online bookings made after hours, St Vincent’s Priority allows 24/7 access to specialists in real-time. Leverage the thousands of patients searching St Vincent’s Priority every month and put your practice in front of more potential patients.
- You'll benefit from free marketing to you and your practice: We’re not only investing in the setup of the technology, but also in dedicated marketing programs to ensure you’re top of mind for GP’s when they make decisions and for patients when they are searching for specialist healthcare.
- Your staff will have less administration: With a streamlined referral process and an ongoing stream of lead generation, St Vincent’s Priority allows you and your staff more time to focus on delivering patient care.
You can register your interest to participate here. Once you have done so, a MyHealth1st representative will be in touch to arrange a meeting with you to answer any questions you have regarding St Vincent’s Priority.
1stGroup integrates with over 50 Practice Management software systems. This includes Genie, Best Practice, Blue Chip, Medilink, Nookal and Shexie. Some PMS systems in use are either end of life or too old to support integration and as such specialists on these platforms cannot be supported with this type of integration. These systems are BPAC Clinical Solutions, Compudoc, Global Transcription Services, Medical Spectrum, Medinet, Monet, Ozescribe, Practix.
1stGroup are also in the process of confirming integration with Clinic to Cloud and IntraHealth. In the interim, 1stGroup have the MyHealth1st Diary option which is a standalone appointment diary so that you don’t miss out on the opportunity of offering online appointments to patients.
Send us your enquiries below
Please call or fill in the form below and we’ll get back to you within one business day.
1300 266 517