For Health Professionals
Referrals
All referrals and correspondence are preferred via Medical Objects for all of our physicians.
Geriatrician Referrals: Patients can be referred directly, with referrals addressed to Beyond Specialists Brisbane. We ask that you kindly notate on all referrals the term “comprehensive geriatric assessment“, as this will allow for appropriate Medicare item number usage to cover the detailed assessment that will be performed.
Upon receipt of referrals, one of our triage team will assign a geriatrician to your patient, based on individual patient requirements (as detailed on your referral) and appointment timeliness. If, however, you wish for your patient to see a specific geriatrician, please indicate this on your referral and a booking will be made direct with this specialist, if available.
Pre-Appointment Tests: Our doctors would prefer your patients to attend with suitable pathology and imaging to reduce unnecessary review appointments and delays in starting relevant treatment. A list has been compiled of the test results that we recommend attaching to your referral for your patients:
Dementia & Memory:
- CT brain scan (If not already performed in the last 6 months)
- FBC, E-LFT, B12/folate, iron studies, TSH, ESR (If not already performed in the last 12 months)
Falls:
- CT brain scan (If not already performed since the commencement of syncope episodes),
- FBC, E-LFT, B12/folate, iron studies, TSH, vitamin D & ESR (if not already performed in the last 12 months).
Patient Information
APPOINTMENTS
Geriatric Initial Appointments
If you are a new patient, we will require a referral from your general practitioner (GP) to Beyond Specialists Brisbane, prior to booking an appointment. Once received, your referral will be triaged by our experienced staff, in order to assign you to one of our geriatricians according to urgency and your particular health needs. If your GP requests that you are to be seen by a specific geriatrician, we will endeavor to provide this in a timely manner.
An initial consultation can take between 60 and 80 minutes depending on the nature and complexity of your condition. We do ask that you arrive with at least one family member, carer or friend, as there can be a lot of information to process. This consultation includes collating past medical history, reviewing current medications and investigations, a physical and/or mental health examinations as well as discussing diagnoses, further investigations and your individual management plan.
Once the initial consultation has taken place you may be required to have further appointments depending on the result, complexity of your condition and your management plan.
Geriatric Review Appointments
Review appointments may be required to assess further results/investigations, changes or developments in your diagnosis, and/or to discuss alternative options or changes required to your management plan. We generally allow between 20 and 40 minutes for review appointments and again ask that a family member, carer or friend accompany you.
Following each outpatient appointment, a detailed letter will be sent to your GP and referring doctor, if different to your regular GP. If you wish for another health practitioner to receive a copy of these letters, please make a request to your doctor and advise the administration staff.
Side Effects / Contacting your doctors between booked appointments
We encourage you to keep our doctors up to date with your medical concerns regarding your diagnosis and management, as well as any side-effects or issues with any newly prescribed medications. If you are experiencing side-effects or wish to relay information to your treating specialist, between appointments, please contact our office and our administrative team will assist with documenting a thorough message to your doctor. We will require your current list of medications including dosages, so please have these details on hand when you call our office or alternatively, you can email this information to our monitored email: [email protected]. Our administration team will endeavor to contact you as soon as practical, via phone or reply email, if however, you do not hear from our administration team in a timely manner, please contact us.
If you experience any life-threatening side effects, please call 000 and/or present to your local Hospital’s Emergency Department.
Payment options
We appreciate full payment of your appointments on the day of your appointment and payment can be made by one of the following methods:
- EFT
- Cheque
- Cash
Medicare Rebates
All outpatient appointments are eligible for Medicare rebate and our administrative team will send your claim online to Medicare on the day of your appointment once your payment has been made. We ask that you please register your bank details with Medicare prior to your appointment, in order for your claim to be sent online the same day. You should receive your rebate within 24 hours from Medicare into the nominated bank account.
Referrals
If you are a current patient of our practice and you require a review appointment, you will need to confirm with our administration staff that your referral is still current. Medicare stipulates that you must always have a current referral in order to receive a Medicare rebate for your medical appointments. Our administration staff assist in ensuring that all patients have a valid referral, however at times due to rescheduling of appointments, this may be overlooked, therefore it is the responsibility of the patient to ensure they have a valid referral at all times. Please do not hesitate to ask our staff when coordinating your next appointment.
General Telephone Advice
You can contact our administration team via telephone Monday to Thursday between the hours of 9:00am and 4:00pm and Fridays between 9:00am and 1:00pm.
However, if you happen to call out of hours, you are welcome to leave a voice recording on our answering service and a team member will contact you the following working day.
We also encourage emails to be sent to our monitored email address: [email protected]
