Inward Referrals (Admin Workflow) – Profile EMR User Help

Background
Overview of Inward Referral View Filters
View All Open Inward Referrals
Create an Inward Referral
Create a New Inward Referral from the Scan Processor
Create a New Inward Referral in the Referral Module
View Inward Referrals with Decisions
Update Progress of Inward Referrals with Decisions
Book an Appointment from the Referral Module
Close an Inward Referral
View Closed Inward Referrals

Background

An Inward Referral is a referral received by your clinic from another service, such as an external provider or another VCH/PHC clinic by phone, fax, or within the EMR. Typically, admin staff start the process by creating the Inward Referral and then the intake clinician reviews the referral to make a decision to accept or decline the referral. After decision, the next steps are typically completed by admin staff again such as attempting contact to book the client's first visit or sending the declined letter to the referral source.

This help file covers the typical admin workflow.

Overview of Inward Referral View Filters

There are three main ways to filter referrals: By Status, By Decision, and By Progress (and any combination of these).

Using the different Progress options allows your clinic to divide the different stages that referrals are in into smaller and more manageable lists (i.e., view only referrals currently in Attempting Contact). Your clinic may choose to use some or all of the Progress options depending on your workflows and referral volume.

Filter	Options	Definition
Status	Open	Default – There are still steps that need to be completed with the referral
Status	Closed	There are no more steps that need to be completed with the referral
Decision	Pending	Default – No decision has been made but ready for decision
	Accepted	Referral has been accepted
	Declined	Referral has been declined
	Null/Blank	Optional: May be used for referrals with missing requirements and not yet ready for Clinical Review
Progress	Null/Blank	Default – No progress defined
	Clinical Review	Referral is undergoing Clinical Review by the clinician; waiting for decision
	Attempting Contact	Appointment is being attempted to be booked
	Appointment Booked	Appointment has been booked
	Added to Wait List	Client has been added to Wait List
	Completed	Referral workflow is complete

View All Open Inward Referrals

1. Navigate to Work Centre
2. Select Referrals segment
3. To view all Open Inward Referrals at your current logged on clinic, click on the View dropdown and select Inward Referrals – Open (Current POS)
This displays all Open referrals that still require action - whether from the clinician or admin staff.
There are several other view filters available that would make the referral list more manageable for clinics with higher referral volume.

Tip! Click on the column header to sort, whether by Progress, Reason, Referral Received Date, Priority, Clinician, etc.

Any referral created for a client will also appear in the client's Medical Record's Referrals segment.

Create an Inward Referral

Inward referrals may be received in different ways such as a fax, phone, task, or walk-in. When there is a referral form involved, inward referrals are created via the Scan Processor. When there is no referral form involved, then the referral workflow occurs within the referral module only.

Create a New Inward Referral from the Scan Processor

Refer to the Scan Processor help file: Appendix C for instructions on how to create the inward referral and then follow starting Step 7 below for the rest of the instructions.

Create a New Inward Referral in the Referral Module

1. Navigate to Work Centre
2. Select Referrals
3. Click on the Create a New Referral dropdown and select New Referral In

4. Select the client (if you cannot find the client, you may need to register them first - see Client Registration help file)
5. Inward Referral window opens
6. Fill out the referral source in the From tab Ext Prov field
This list of referral sources is derived from the External Clinician Dictionary managed by your clinic's Super User. If you cannot find the referral source, whether it's the client's Primary Care Provider or another team, they need to be added in the External Clinician Dictionary first - see External Clinicians (External Providers and Pharmacies) help file).

Tip! For walk-in self-referrals, select Self Referral: BC

7. The default Status is Open and the default Decision is Pending
This allows this filter to be viewed by the clinician as ready for a decision.

Optional: Depending on your workflow, you may also choose to update other fields such as Reason for Referral, Narrative, and Priority, as well as the Progress to Clinical Review. Click on the To tab to update the assigned Clinician.

8. Click Save & Close

When managing referrals, a reminder window will pop-up to ask if you would like to update the client's care team and External FP/NP. If the referral source is the client's External FP/NP, then click Yes, otherwise, click No.

View Inward Referrals with Decisions

After a clinician has made a decision on the new inward referral you have created, typically, the following workflow is carried on by admin staff such as booking first visit appointments of accepted referrals or sending declined letters of declined referrals.

Important! These referrals that require further action by admin staff are Inward Referrals with Open status. If no further action is required by admin or clinician, then the referral should be Closed.

1. Navigate to Work Centre
2. Select Referrals segment
3a. To view all Accepted Inward Referrals at your current logged on clinic, click on the View dropdown and select Inward Referrals – Open and Decision Accepted (Current POS)
This displays all Open and Accepted referrals regardless of Progress. You may choose to use this filter and sort by Progress, or use the more defined view filters for a smaller and more manageable list depending on your clinic's workflow and referral volume.

3b. To view all Declined Inward Referrals at your current logged on clinic, click on the View dropdown and select Inward Referrals – Open and Decision Declined (Current POS)
This displays all Open and Declined referrals.

Update Progress of Inward Referrals with Decisions

To update the progress of an inward referral, click on the Progress dropdown and select the option as defined in Overview of Inward Referral View Filters.

Clinics typically have guidelines on how many times or number of weeks to Attempt Contact. If an appointment cannot be successfully booked, update the Decision from Accepted to Declined with Reason such as Lost to Contact prior to Closing the referral to accurately reflect the decision reason.

Book an Appointment from the Referral Module

1. When you are ready to book the appointment, click on the Add to appointment placeholder icon

2. Navigate to Work Centre > Appointments
3. Notice that the client's name is in the appointment placeholder:

4. Drag and drop the client's name from the placeholder to the agreed-upon booking slot
5. Click Yes when asked Do you want to book an appointment? You may need to confirm admin alerts when they pop-up.
6. Click Yes when asked Would you like to add client context to the appointment?
This automatically links the referral to the appointment. If the referral decision is not yet Accepted, the system will also give you the option to update the decision to Accepted.

You can also manually link the referral in the Edit Appointment window:

7. Go back to the Inward Referral window and change the Progress to Appointment Booked

Depending on your clinic's workflow or client population, you may click Save & Close and keep the referral Open if you would like to ensure that the client attends the booked appointment. When the client attends the booked appointment, the inward referral is Closed at that time.

Close an Inward Referral

If there is no further action required on the referral from any clinic staff (including admin staff), then the referral should be closed so that it falls off the Open Inward Referrals list.

To close an Inward Referral, click on the Close button and ensure to update the Decision and Reason as needed. This will change the Status from Open to Closed.

View Closed Inward Referrals

To view Closed Inward Referrals at your current logged on clinic, click on the View dropdown and select Inward Referrals – Closed (Received in the Last 1 Year to Current POS)
This displays Closed referrals that no longer require any action - whether from the clinician or admin staff. There is a date range of only those received in the last year to prevent performance issues in the system.