About Us with history

ERMS (Electronic Request Management System) was developed in the early 2000s to answer the clear clinical need for a more consistent, reliable and faster referral system. At the time, GPs referred in a variety of ways, including by hand, post, fax and email. This made tracking patient care difficult; creating opportunities for people to fall through the cracks and extra work for clinicians to follow up on referrals.

The original product (ERMS GP) was designed so GPs could launch it via their PMS and send, receive, triage, park, and review referrals all through one secure platform. Referral forms (for more than 700 community or DHB services) are easily accessible within the system, as are links to Health Pathways clinical guidelines.

Experienced general practitioners, senior specialists, health care managers and IT developers were integral to ERMS development, to ensure it delivered what they and patients needed. Pegasus Health provides ERMS’s software development, hosting and technical support services.

ERMS Online – an evolution of the product– was created in 2018 to allow health providers other than GPs (such as allied health, ACC providers, and the private sector) or GPs without a PMS to use the system.

• 2008: Pegasus Health (Charitable) Ltd partners with the Canterbury DHB to establish ERMS.
• 2009: ERMS confirmed as sole provider of e-referrals from general practice to the Canterbury DHB.
• 2010: ERMS confirmed as the e-referral system for all five South Island health boards. By this time more than 600,000 referrals have successfully been processed.
• 2016: ERMS celebrates 1 million e-referrals.
• 2018: ERMS Online launched.
• 2021: Whanganui DHB becomes the first in the North Island to adopt ERMS, meaning all GPs in the area refer through either ERMS GP or ERMS Online.
• 2022: ERMS hits the 5 million referral mark, including a large proportion of referrals from allied health professionals, such as optometrists and physiotherapists, and the private sector.
• 2022: ERMS Online evolves to integrate with the seven most commonly-used PMS’s, providing GPs with the more modern user interface and increased functionality and security ERMS Online provides.