You can create an internal referral to another provider within your clinic. From the patient chart, you can initiate a new referral from an encounter, a letter or a form, and the letter or form is attached to the referral to provide the required information about the patient and the reason for the referral.
For internal referrals, you can immediately assign a priority and assign the patient to one of your clinic's waitlists.
You can also create an external referral to a provider outside your clinic (refer to Creating external referrals).
Steps
1. Within a patient chart, do one of the following:
Create and save a new letter (refer to Creating letters from the patient chart or Creating letters from encounters).
💡 Tips:
Within an encounter, in the Referrals section, you can quickly create a referral letter that includes your encounter notes. Click Add Letter to be able to modify the contents of the letter, or click Add Referral to include your encounter notes without modifying.
When creating a letter, choose a referral letter template to quickly include all required information.
Add and save a new form (refer to Adding forms to encounters).
2. After you save your referral letter or form, at the bottom of the letter, click Referral > Internal.
The New Referral - Internal window opens.
3. Fill in the fields of the referral, using the following table as reference.
Field | Description |
Reason for Referral | If you selected a presenting issue for the encounter or entered a letter title, it appears by default. Otherwise, Consultation appears by default. You can type a new reason, if required. |
Date Added | Defaults to today's date; change it, if required. |
Ordering Provider | Select who ordered the referral. Search for the provider from your Contacts or click +New provider to add a new provider.
To change the provider, click the name and select a new one from the list. |
Service Provider | Select who the patient will see. Defaults to the recipient of the referral letter.
To change the provider, click the name and select a new one from the list. |
Patient Information | Defaults to the current patient. |
Attachments | The referral letter is automatically attached. To attach another document, such as a file from the patient chart, click Add Attachment and choose the document. |
Status | Choose the appropriate status. |
Priority | Choose the appropriate priority. |
Waiting List | If your clinic uses waitlists, you can assign the patient to one. |
Required Actions | If appropriate, initiate the next action in the referral workflow.
Depending on the chosen referral status and its configuration, you may have to perform an action before you can save and send the referral. For more information, visit Configuring outgoing referral statuses. |
Patient Data Referral Data | If customised in your referral settings, click a blue data field to update patient data and referral data directly from the referral. Refer to Updating patient and referral data from a referral. |
Comments | If required, type additional comments and click Leave Comment. These comments remain in your clinic and are not sent externally. |
4. Click Save.
If you booked an appointment, choose whether to send a notification to the patient and click Send.
The referral is saved (and sent) to the service provider and added to your list of Internal referrals list in the Referrals dashboard.
Updated December 15, 2023