Outgoing Referral Process

Outgoing Referral Process

Dr. Steps

  1. Dr. creates referral letter/form.
  2. Click on the referral tab in patient chart,
  3. Select new,
  4. Choose blank template or a specific template used in the clinic.



 Depending on the template selected, some of the following items may already be complete, if so, skip to the next step.

    5. Make sure outgoing is checked off and assign the referral to the staff members who complete them, such as referral coordinators or receptionists.
    6. Type in the reason for referral or select from the dropdown of commonly used items.
    7. Enter any notes in the first notes section, such as which documents need to be sent.
    8. Select the specialty to send referral to from the dropdown, if there is a specific doctor in mind, select them from the ref doc search icon, or type the name into other.


    9. Add any documents that are pertinent to the referral, such as a letter/form and any other applicable documents.
  1. Click on the paperclip.
  2. Select document type, such as scan, or letter.
  3. Highlight and click add, the document name will appear on the right-hand side. (The document will remain on the patient chart as well).
  4. Save.

All items are now attached to the referral for easy management.


From here the staff member in charge of sending referrals will take over the process.

Referral staff steps:


Pending

  1. Staff member responsible for referrals will open referral from their assigned list of referrals.
  2. Add any information the doctor didn’t add, such as a specific doctor or adding the relevant documents (steps shown above).

    3. Fax the referral,
  1. Click on print in the referral template,
  2. Select the items to send and move them to the right-hand box using the arrows.
  3. Select the fax machine from your list of printers and click print, follow the steps for your specific fax window that pops up.

    4. Note all completed actions in the referral notes section.
    5. Change the status to faxed.
    6. Post date the referral two weeks to confirm the specialist office has received and accepted/declined the referral.

Faxed

In two weeks, this referral date will turn red, suggesting action is required.

Open the referral up to follow up based on the latest notes in the referral notes section.

    7. Check to see if the referral has been received and whether it was accepted or declined.
    8. If there is no documentation yet, contact the specialist office to see if they received the referral, ask for an update, or refax the documents and post date another 2 weeks to reassess.
    9. If there is a document attached to the chart, link it to the referral, the same as the other documents.
  1. Add in any details received into the referral notes box, such as wait times, appointment info, status updates.
   10. Depending on the information received, change the status of the referral accordingly, such as ‘waiting for appointment’ or ‘notify patient’.
  1. If waiting on an appointment date, change the due date of the referral to the future around the length of the wait times, so if the wait times are 3 months, change the due date to three months from now.
  2. If an appointment has been received, leave the date as today, change the status to notify patient.

Waiting for appointment

    11. In 6 months when the referral is more likely to have an appointment, and the referral date has turned red, open the chart to review if any documents have been received in reference to this referral.
    12. If yes, make sure to attach them the same as above.
  1. If no, contact the clinic for an update and update the notes section, changing the due date accordingly, as well as the referral status.
    13. Update the status to notify patient and change the due date to today.

Notify Pt

    14. Contact the patient to inform them of all pertinent information.
  1. If no contact is made, make a note in the referral notes that a voicemail was left to call the clinic.
  2. If patient has been made aware of the appointment details, note this in referral notes, post date the referral 30 days after the date of the appointment, and change the status to ‘Waiting for consult’.


Waiting for consult report

    15. Once the consult report has been received, send to doctor for review, and open the referral to attach it there as well.
    16. Change referral status to complete.


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