Primary care practices refer patients to specialists, ancillary healthcare clinicians, labs and screening facilities, and elsewhere. Making the referral process easy for patients increases the chances that they will follow through. Establishing referral agreements ensures that both you and the referral destination get all the information you need.
Referral agreements spell out mutual expectations and responsibilities, such as:
Consider whether you could avoid a referral by having a telephone or electronic consultation with a specialist. Advice and guidance may be enough to let you deliver the needed care.
Before making a referral, check whether the:
Select at random the records of at least 20 patients who you referred to other clinicians a month ago. Calculate the percentage of patients whose referral results are in their medical records.
Select at random the records of at least 20 patients who were sent for lab tests a month ago. Calculate the percentage of patients who have completed the test and the percentage of those who have been notified of the test results.
Before implementing this tool and 2, 6, and 12 months later, ask a sample of patients who have not completed referrals why they did not follow through. Develop and implement improvement plans to address the reasons they give.
Before implementing this tool and 2, 6, and 12 months later, collect patient feedback on a selection of questions about this tool from the Health Literacy Patient Feedback Questions.