How to manage eConsults in Vision

There are two ways that eConsult reports can arrive into EMIS Web

Faye avatar
Written by Faye
Updated over a week ago

This article covers:


Receiving eConsults directly into Vision Mail Manager

Please note, prior to receiving eConsults directly into Vision Mail Manager you will need to contact the Operations Team (practice.support@econsult.health) as we need to contact Vision to configure your account (it can take 3 weeks for Vision to respond).

Configuring Vision

Once we have had confirmation from Vision they have configured your accounts we then need two details from your account. Your MESH ID and the confirmation that your pull messages from MESH happen every 5 minutes (to ensure there are no delays in receiving your eConsults). You will also need to ensure your EDI Account on Vision is logged in for the messages to pull. Once you have confirmed with the Operations Team they will send a number of tests.

The steps to update your pull message:

  1. From ‘GP communicator’ select ‘tools’, then ‘options’, and ‘scheduler’.

  2. Select ‘Use polling interval’ and update to check for new messages every 5 minutes as highlighted below:

Navigating direct flow into the Mail Merger

To use the Vision interop head to the Mail Manager

eConsults will arrive in as Unclassified Clinical Documents (unfortunately this is configured by Vision and we are not able to changed this) but they do indicate they are from HurleyInnovation.

They will be matched if Vision has found a match with the details input by the patient or they will be displayed as unmatched (with an * by the patient name).

They will display as unmatched if the patient has incorrectly entered some details, such as address, name or date of birth and you will need to manually match the patient. The eConsult will need to be assigned to a patient first before it can be filed so this step will have to be done initially.

  1. Click on the the patient icon

  2. The select 'Ticked'

  3. Then click on 'assign to patient'.

4. Vision will then provide a pop up tab with matching options.

5. Once you have selected a match you will then see the eConsult has been assigned and can now be filed.

6. In order to view and file an eConsult that has automatically matched, select Unclassified Clinical Documents (as highlighted above) and click on ‘view Document’.

7. Once selected this will lead to the link to the eConsult which is under ‘attachment pdf document’.

8. When filing the eConsult to the patient record, we recommend adding a Read code. The one to add is 9G6 and you can find this by simply searching for Alert. The full code is called Alert Received from telehealth monitoring system.

9. You will then need to confirm that you wish to file this eConsult to the patients record.

10. This allows you to easily identify the eConsult in the patient record as it has been coded.


Receiving eConsults to your practice's Smart Inbox

1. First ensure the eConsult has been exported and saved to your computer from the Smart Inbox, see guide here.

2. Go to Vision and open the Consultation Manager.

3. In Consultation Manager, click on the 'Patient’ icon to find and select the right patient.

4. In the patient consultation, click on ‘Add > Select Attachments’ from the drop-down list

5. The Attachments box will now be open at the bottom of the consultation window. Click on the ‘Attach’ button within this box below.

6. In the window that opens, navigate to the saved eConsult in Step 1 and click 'Open'.

7. The eConsult is now ready to be attached to the patient record. Make sure ‘Type of Attachment’ is set to ‘Other Attachment’ and that the word ‘eConsult’ is written in the ‘Summary’ box. Finally, click 'OK'.

8. Add read code. 9G6 “Alert received” into the ‘Read Term – Add’ box at the bottom of the consultation. Click enter and the full read code '9G6..00 Alert received from telehealth monitoring system' will appear.

9. Click ‘OK’ to add the code to the consultation

10. Add eConsult (admin and clinical) to the appointment book

  • Dedicated appointment book for eConsults only. This could be set up so that there is shared responsibility amongst clinicians to process the eConsults in a timely manner.

  • eConsults can be added to a duty triage list to be processed in time order by a duty clinician.


Receiving eConsults to your practice's email

1. Right-click on the attachment and select ‘Save target as’ to save the completed template in a folder on your computer.

2. Go to Vision and open the Consultation Manager.

3. In Consultation Manager, click on the 'Patient’ icon to find and select the right patient.

4. In the patient consultation, click on ‘Add > Select Attachments’ from the drop-down list

5. The Attachments box will now be open at the bottom of the consultation window. Click on the ‘Attach’ button within this box below.

6. In the window that opens, navigate to the saved eConsult in Step 1 and click 'Open'.

7. The eConsult is now ready to be attached to the patient record. Make sure ‘Type of Attachment’ is set to ‘Other Attachment’ and that the word ‘eConsult’ is written in the ‘Summary’ box. Finally, click 'OK'.

8. Add read code. 9G6 “Alert received” into the ‘Read Term – Add’ box at the bottom of the consultation. Click enter and the full read code '9G6..00 Alert received from telehealth monitoring system' will appear.

9. Click ‘OK’ to add the code to the consultation

10. Add eConsult (admin and clinical) to the appointment book

  • Dedicated appointment book for eConsults only. This could be set up so that there is shared responsibility amongst clinicians to process the eConsults in a timely manner.

  • eConsults can be added to a duty triage list to be processed in time order by a duty clinician.


FAQs and troubleshooting

The patient does not match on the system and is not registered to the practice

If the patient is not registered and therefore not matching to the system, it is your responsibility, the same as for any other unregistered patient, for example, those walking into your practice or phoning you. You will need to contact the patient to let them know and dispose the eConsult accordingly. For more information, please see our guide here.

How do I attach messages I have sent to the patient and their replies to the patients record?

If you are contacting the patient via the PCM within the eConsult or via the Smart Inbox you can copy the link or message and paste into the box at the bottom of the patients record 'Read Term - Add' and press OK to add.

Any reply from the patient via the two way messaging feature in the Smart Inbox will come through with same messaging as the original eConsult submission so can be confusing. (See top entry ‘Unclassified Clinical Document’ that is the reply from the patient) You will need to save it to the patients record using the same flow described above.


If you have any questions or you feel that this article could be improved, please feel free to give us some feedback by emailing us, pressing the emojis below or using the chat button on the bottom right-hand side of this page to speak to one of the eConsult team.

Did this answer your question?