The healthcare landscape is changing rapidly. As the industry shifts towards value-based care, it helps healthcare providers to focus on delivering high-quality care and making their care delivery efficient. But the current healthcare system has several other challenges, that include:
- Protecting patient information from data/ security breaches
- Ensuring the sending and receiving of care plans through a secured communication channel, maintaining confidentiality
- Directing patients to the right specialist to ensure better outcomes
All these problems can be addressed with a help of referral management tool.
A referral management system is a unique and powerful tool designed for care providers to keep track of their patient referrals throughout the care continuum. The ultimate mantra of this tool is to refer patients to the right specialist at the right time. This tool helps to improve and streamline communication amongst primary care physicians (PCPs), specialists, and any other members involved in a patient’s care.
So, how does referral work on the ground today?
Some quick statistics on traditional referral processes and adoption draw up a sorry picture:
- According to the Archives of Internal Medicine, only 50% of referrals result in a scheduled appointment.
- The Journal of General Internal Medicine says, 70% of specialists are not receiving clinical information before seeing the patient.
- The Journal of the American College of Physicians says, 30% of missed or delayed diagnoses are due to miscommunication.
An electronic referral management solution can help address some of the problems outlined above and the points below can help you build a case for why you should immediately consider adopting a referral management system for your practice:
#1 Better communication
50% of physicians agree that there is a gap in communication once a referral is made. HealthViewX referral solution has two-way scheduler integration that makes the process simple and efficient.
Our referral software, also allows physicians and specialists to share patient-related information or request for more information when required. The system also allows specialists to share the treatment details and results of diagnosis with other PCPs.
#2 Multi-Channel Integration
Healthcare practices receive referrals via varied media including fax, phone calls, and emails. Tracking and managing these referrals across these various sources proves difficult for providers. Employing a single unified dashboard will help providers to gather information from all sources to one place that helps in achieving better control of the entire process.
Our tool can integrate with any EMR system, so providers can gather information and update their records in seconds.
#3 Manage and Track referrals
An actionable dashboard will help providers identify patterns in referrals and ensure that schedules and appointments are managed better. With a referral management system in place, providers can also track every individual patient’s referral status.
Our referral software will notify all members involved in the referral process about an upcoming appointment. This keeps patients and physicians informed about their meeting and helps providers ensure follow through on their referrals.
#4 Meaningful Engagement
Our referral software allows providers, physicians and patients to access patient records through a secure network from anywhere, anytime. It sends meeting reminders to patient and specialists, allows patients to connect virtually with their physicians, and enables instant communication between patient and specialist on a single tap.
#5 More effective diagnosis and treatment
Quicker referrals mean quicker diagnosis and access to treatment. Our referral solution allows PCPs to choose the specialists from a preloaded list of specialists and helps direct patients to the most suitable specialist. It provides timely updates on patient health status and notifies any breach of preset thresholds that enabling instantaneous or emergency care, where required.
Our Referral Management Solution is HIPAA compliant and can monitor referral progress that helps providers and healthcare institutions to track down all the information involved in a referral process and helps facilities to keep revenue within their system.
