Assembled from the record
History, examination findings, medications, allergies, relevant results and imaging pulled into the receiving service's own template, with the mandatory fields checked before it is allowed to leave.
Use case · Referral Automation
Referrals that arrive complete and come back closed.
Outbound referrals assembled from the chart, authorised, sent and then chased until the report returns — with the loop closed in the record and the patient told at every step.
- 29%
- Fewer referrals rejected as incomplete
- 96%
- Loops closed within the target window
- 5 days
- Off average time to first appointment
In the product
Referral 7734 — gastroenterology
TrackingRaised 09:12 · Dr Whelan · suspected coeliac disease · routine
Packet assembled: history, tTG-IgA 128 U/mL, FBC, current medications
Template check: receiving service requires IgA level — present ✓
Primum
Authorisation submitted to plan · EDI 278 · reference AX-44192
Authorisation approved 11:40 · attached to packet · referral transmitted 11:44
Acknowledged by service 14:02 · appointment date pending, clock set 15 days
Primum
SMS to patient: referral sent and accepted, you'll hear about a date within three weeks.
Case timeline
- Service
- Gastroenterology · St Vincent's
- Urgency
- Routine
- Mandatory fields
- 9 of 9 present
- Authorisation
- Approved · AX-44192
- Acknowledged
- Same day, 14:02
- Report due
- Day 21 · clock running
Case open · next chase day 15 if no date · patient notified 11:46
Overview
A referral is not sent. It is chased, and mostly it is not.
- Assembled against the receiving service's requirements, so it is not rejected on arrival.
- Authorisation obtained and attached before the referral is sent.
- Tracked to a filed report, with silence treated as an event rather than as nothing.
The referral letter goes out and then it enters a gap nobody owns. Did the consultant accept it? Did the patient get a date? Did they attend? Did the report come back, and did anybody read it? Each of those questions takes a phone call, so in practice none of them get asked until the patient rings to complain.
Primum builds the referral from the chart, checks it against the receiving service's own requirements before it leaves, obtains the authorisation, sends it, and then keeps the case open until the report is filed. The patient is told when the referral was sent, when it was accepted, and when a date exists — and the practice sees anything that stops moving.
Capabilities
The four places a referral stalls
Every one of them is a place where somebody has to make a phone call. That is the work being taken away.
Authorisation before it goes
Prior authorisation requested and tracked over EDI 278, with the determination attached to the referral, so nothing arrives at a consultant's office to be sent back for a reference number.
Chased on a schedule
No acknowledgement in five days, no appointment date in fifteen, no report in twenty-one — each of those is a trigger that makes a call rather than an alert nobody clears.
The loop is closed in the chart
The returned report is matched to the original referral, filed, coded, and put in front of the referring clinician with the question they originally asked restated.
How it works
Request to filed report
One case, open from the moment the clinician decides to refer until the answer is in the record.
- Arrives
- Decided
- Done
- Returned
01
Referral raised
Triggered by the clinician's decision, with the service and the urgency chosen from your own directory and the patient's cover.
Directory + plan match
02
Packet assembled
Clinical content built from the chart into the receiving template and checked against its mandatory fields, with imaging and results attached.
Template validated
03
Authorised and sent
Prior authorisation requested and tracked, then the referral transmitted over the channel that service accepts — direct message, portal, fax bridge or API.
EDI 278 + secure send
04
Chased and closed
Acknowledgement, date and report each tracked on a clock. The report is filed to the chart, coded, and surfaced to the referring clinician.
Loop closure
01
Referral raised
Triggered by the clinician's decision, with the service and the urgency chosen from your own directory and the patient's cover.
Directory + plan match
02
Packet assembled
Clinical content built from the chart into the receiving template and checked against its mandatory fields, with imaging and results attached.
Template validated
03
Authorised and sent
Prior authorisation requested and tracked, then the referral transmitted over the channel that service accepts — direct message, portal, fax bridge or API.
EDI 278 + secure send
04
Chased and closed
Acknowledgement, date and report each tracked on a clock. The report is filed to the chart, coded, and surfaced to the referring clinician.
Loop closure
Benefits
Fewer rejections, shorter waits, no lost patients
The leakage in a referral pathway is almost entirely administrative.
It arrives complete
Referrals validated against the receiving service's requirements are not returned for missing information, which is the single largest cause of a restarted wait.
Nothing goes quiet
Silence triggers a chase. A referral that has not been acknowledged in five days becomes a call rather than a patient complaint in eight weeks.
The answer gets read
Reports come back matched to the question that was asked, so the clinician sees the finding and the original reason for referral together.
In practice
Four referrals that would otherwise have stalled
All four failure modes, handled before anybody noticed them.
Two-week-wait, suspected cancer
Sent in 40 minPacket assembled, authorisation not required, transmitted the same morning, and the patient called to confirm they know what to expect.
Cardiology, missing ECG
Caught pre-sendThe template requires a recent ECG. The referral is held, the ECG is booked for the next day, and the packet goes out complete.
Silent for 18 days
Chased twiceNo date from the receiving service. Two chases logged, escalation to the practice manager with the full history attached.
Report returned, never read
Surfaced to clinicianA dermatology report lands in a shared inbox. It is matched to the referral, coded, and put on the referring GP's list with the original question restated.
Read next
- Task ManagementResults to action, letters to file, forms to complete, calls to return. Every task created, prioritised, drafted and routed — with the ones a person must sign arriving ready to sign.Open
- Intelligent Triage & RoutingClinical triage against your own protocol, applied to every inbound contact — phone, portal message or web form — and routed to the pathway, the team and the timeframe your policy says it belongs in.Open
- Payment ResolutionEligibility, estimates, statements, payment plans and denials worked through in plain language — so patients understand the bill before it arrives and the practice stops writing balances off.Open
Find the referrals nobody is watching
Give us a quarter of outbound referrals. We will tell you how many were acknowledged, how many produced a report, and how many are sitting somewhere between the two with nobody chasing them.