Referral Letters

A patient does not always finish where they walked in: dentistry sends a case to orthodontics, general medicine sends one to a specialist, a complex case goes up to a hospital. A referral letter records each of those moves, so the record travels with the patient instead of breaking off.

This screen is the lookup list of every letter written.

Illustration of the Referral letters screen

Area	What it is
1. Search box	Find a letter by patient name.
2. Refresh and columns	Reload the list; the button beside it chooses which columns show.
3. Referral type column	Where the patient is being sent — see below.

The remaining columns complete the letter: Referral date, Receiving facility, Receiving department, Reason and what support is asked of the receiving side.

The three types

Type	Used when
Internal referral	To another department of the same clinic, for example dentistry to orthodontics.
External referral	To another facility at the same level — another branch or a partner clinic.
Refer to higher level	Up to a hospital, when the case is beyond the clinic's scope.

A letter's status

Status	Meaning
Pending	Written; the patient has not gone yet.
Sent	The patient has been sent on.
Accepted	The receiving side confirms they have the patient.
Completed	The referral is finished and the patient has been dealt with.
Cancelled	The letter was not used.

Where letters are written

A referral letter is written inside the visit: the doctor opens the examination screen and goes to the Linked tab. There they set the type, the receiving facility and department, the reason and the record summary to send along.

Because it is written from inside the visit, the letter is always attached to the right patient and the right record — the receiving side opens it with the full context, nothing to ask again.

Related

• Reception - Examination — the Linked tab on the examination screen.
• Medical Records List — the record behind a referred visit.
• Medical Records Overview — where referral sits in the whole journey.