Glen's Thalamus tips
If you have any feedback, ideas for tips or need Thalamus assistance email thalamus.help@wellsouth.org.nz or glen.knol@wellsouth.org.nz.
You can also view video tutorials here.
WellSouth Update – 5 February, Huitanguru 2026
Coding your diabetes patients
Kia ora all,
I was helping someone do a diabetes audit recently, which made me look at the numbers of patients with diabetes that aren’t coded.
This numbered in the 1000s a few years ago for the whole PHO, and after some sterling work in the practices, we got it as low as 150 last year, however it is slowly creeping back up again.
According to a large retrospective study in the Canadian Medical Journal1, patient care can be improved if clinicians code a diagnosis of diabetes in an electronic health record (PMS). Patients with a coded diabetes diagnosis were more likely to receive quality-of-care indicators such as HbA1c testing, and blood pressure monitoring, compared with similar patients without a coded diagnosis.
Anecdotally I can see in the data that uncoded patients are less likely to have a current DAR, a diabetes recall, and more likely to not have a foot check or not be on diabetes medications in the last 4 months.
It’s easy to find out who these folk are, if you go to the Diabetes Dashboard and click on Uncoded Diabetic, then view patients.
Identification of undiagnosed diabetes and quality of diabetes care in the United States: cross-sectional study of 11.5 million primary care electronic records. Tim A. Holt Candace L. Gunnarsson Paul A. Cload and Susan D. Ross
Canadian Medical Association Open Access Journal Oct 2014, 2 (4) E248- E255; DOI: 10.9778/cmajo.20130095
If you want to know more, email glen.knol@wellsouth.org.nz
WellSouth Update –22 January, Kohitātea, 2026
Smoking Dashboard Coding
Kia ora all, welcome to 2026.
A practice contacted me the other day with a smoking query, and whilst answering that query, I noticed something interesting.
There were some patients that had gone from being coded as a current smoker to later coded as a non-smoker/never smoked. However, technically that’s not possible. Once someone has smoked, they should never be recorded as a non-smoker. They should be recorded as an ex-smoker.
If they are incorrectly coded as non-smoker instead of ex-smoker, they drop off the radar for brief advice, and overlooked conditions like COPD, CVD risk, cancer, just to name a few.
Should you want to see who these people are you can open the Smoking Dashboard and look for the bookmarks called “View Smoking Non-smokers” or “View Smoking Non-smokers (Lite)”:
These patients should be updated to ex-smoker, using:
Stopped more than 1 year ago
· Read code: 137S
· SNOMED: 48031000119106
Stopped less than 1 year ago
· Read codes: 137G / 137K
· SNOMED: 735128000
Some of these patients may also benefit from some brief advice at the same time, to help make sure they continue to be an ex-smoker.
If you are unsure how to find them or want mores assistance, feel free to give me a bell…
WellSouth Update –19 November-Whiringa-ā-rangi 2025
Be careful sharing patient identifiable information
We have all sent an email to someone by mistake and wanted to retrieve it, but can’t. At best it’s no real drama, no harm, no foul. However, if that email contains patient identifiable data, then that’s a privacy breach, and no one wants to end up on TV news eh!
So if you need to tell us about a problem, we just need an NHI, and a description, not a full screenshot including all their details… just in case…
Don’t be like the guy in the cartoon, think privacy, don’t send patient identifiable information via email and things will go much better for everyone in the long run :)
WellSouth Update – 5 November-Whiringa-ā-rangi 2025
You put in a claim for something that you thought was funded, something happened, and you didn’t get paid, but you’re not sure why. As frustrating as that is, looking at why they might be occurring could help in reducing them in your practice (e.g. maybe a certain individual has more than others).
What to do
Go to the Claiming Dashboard and look for the Rejected Claims bookmark in the lefthand menu. Export the data to Excel and see if there is anything that stands out. If the Quintile Funding or Ethnicity Audit in Register Management have a load of names, then that also might explain why you are getting rejected claims, so using those three reports together might be a great starting point to getting to the bottom of rejected claims!
Still unsure of what’s wrong, give me a call and I can take you through the process.
WellSouth Update – 22 October-Whiringa-ā-nuku 2025
If you want a cut down version of the patient exports on Thalamus why not try View Patients Lite.
On some reports it will just give you the very basics, Name and NHI. On Opportunities it adds the Opportunity, Next Visit Date, and Provider. Finally on Register Management depending on the metric you chose it can add things like DOB, PMS Register Status, PMS Enrolment End Date and PMS Date Deceased. It’s so much easier for printing if that’s what you want, so check it out.
WellSouth Update – 24 September-Mahuru 2025
Following on from our recent updates on the people with established CVD - with a risk below 15% - there are still a considerable number of people (4,356) who have a risk that’s too low for their clinical picture. Māori/Pacific, Q5, CSC, HUHC could get extra help via CVD Management, but all of which are clinically high CVD risk (>15), with obvious implications.
To see these folk, go to the CVD Dashboard, click on CVD Px with Risk < 15, then View Patients.
WellSouth Update – 10 September-Mahuru 2025
It's National Cervical Screening Awareness Month so now would be great time to look at who might be eligible for a smear on the Thalamus Screening Dashboard. To get all eligible patients, put one finger on the ctrl key on your keyboard, hold it down and select Overdue, Under Screened, Never Screened and Require Follow-up.
Bear in mind this is NCSP data, and they might not know what you know. If that’s the case, then give them a bell.
WellSouth Update – 27 August-Here-turi-kōkā 2025
Of the 16,278 patients with Diabetes, a significant portion of them (2,081) do not currently have a diabetes recall for a Diabetes Review and hence no foot check. Sadly, if you look at the data, most of them (67%) end up never getting a diabetic review.
If you want to see who these folk are in your practice, go to the Diabetes Dashboard and look at the No Recalls list
WellSouth Update – 14 August-Here-turi-kōkā 2025
This report shows the patients who had an ACC GP MRI referral in the past 10 months BUT who have not yet had an ACC GP MRI Post-MRI review completed and claimed. This is funding, for work often already done, that your practice is missing out on!
To see these patients, click on the ACC GP Referred MRI Review and then View Patients.
WellSouth Update – 31 July-Hōngongoi 2025
A bunch of folks keep emailing me about the re-enrolment data in The Opportunities report. This has changed to Missing HealthOne Declaration in the report. What it all means is that these folks were enrolled before 2011 and need a HealthOne consent form signed otherwise they haven’t consented to having their data being shared. You can see who they are by clicking on the bar graph called Missing HealthOne Declaration and then view patients.
Here is the link to the Opportunity Dashboard.
If you need some assistance on how this works, contact Glen at: thalamus.help@wellsouth.org.nz or glen.knol@wellsouth.org.nz.
WellSouth Update – 16 July-Hōngongoi 2025
Smoking brief advice - to see everyone in your practice that requires smoking brief advice, go to the Smoking Dashboard click on ‘No’ and then view patients
WellSouth Update – 3 July-Hōngongoi 2025
If you have patients who don’t meet the criteria for the hardship grant, you can see if they meet any other criteria for funding under the Opportunities Report (which is now its own report). It could be they are regular attendees and might be on Missed Opportunities (30 days), or a person coming in the next 30 days, so could be in the Appointment Opportunities (30 days).
Here is the link to the Opportunity Dashboard.
If you need some assistance on how this dashboard works, contact Glen at: thalamus.help@wellsouth.org.nz or glen.knol@wellsouth.org.nz.
WellSouth Update – 18 June-Pipiri 2025
We often get asked why is this person is on Thalamus when we believe they are not in our practice, or we can’t find them in the PMS? Thalamus is based on NES/Capitation, so if they are in Thalamus they are officially at your practice by our register records. Check your registration process if you have multiple practices, or if they have left the practice, make sure you have unenrolled them correctly (they will drop off Thalamus once they drop off the register)
WellSouth Update – 3 June-Pipiri 2025
Did you know there are Thalamus videos on the WellSouth website on things like how to use Excel? If you would like to listen to Glen’s dulcet tones, then watch the videos. You can also find links to them in the documentation for each report.
WellSouth Update - 21 May-Haratua 2025
If there is something you don’t know, or something that’s not right, we won’t necessarily know unless you tell us. So don’t be afraid to use the Feedback button or contact me via email
WellSouth Update – 7 May-Haratua 2025
To identify patients whose vaccination status is recorded in your practice but not in AIR (or vice versa), go to the Immunisation Dashboard, select the AIR Comparison tab, and drill down to view any mismatches between the two fully vaccinated groups.
WellSouth Update – 26 March-Poutū-te-rangi 2025
Glen says printing paper lists kills trees, is bad for the environment, and when left long enough is out of date! Excel is great for lists, filtering, and is quick, saving you time. Should you want to learn how to use Excel more effectively, feel free to contact us.
WellSouth Update – 12 March-Poutū-te-rangi 2025
Today's tip - If you can’t remember your Thalamus login, use the “forgot your password” link. Here's a link to a video tutorial if you'd like help navigating or resetting your password: Thalamus Password Reset