Referrals arrive by email, portal and scan, and each one needs the same administrative details before anyone can book. One queue, with details captured and paperwork checked, means fewer referrals sit unread or incomplete. These four steps keep the work administrative: clinical staff make every decision about priority and care.

Step 1 — Agree the checklist

Goal: Decide what a complete referral includes.

  1. List the administrative details and documents each referral needs.
  2. Confirm the checklist with the people who own intake and privacy.
  3. Decide who handles incomplete referrals.
  4. Pick one service or referral source to start.

You finish with: An agreed intake checklist and owners.

Step 2 — Bring referrals into one queue

Goal: Stop referrals getting lost across inboxes.

  1. Read referrals from approved inboxes and portals only.
  2. Keep documents in approved systems under your privacy rules.
  3. Record when each referral arrived.
  4. Measure current time from arrival to first contact as a baseline.

You finish with: One queue with every referral and its arrival time.

Step 3 — Capture and check

Goal: Hand scheduling complete referrals.

  1. Capture administrative details with a note of their source.
  2. Check each referral against the checklist and list gaps.
  3. Queue complete referrals for scheduling staff.
  4. Route incomplete referrals to the intake team to follow up.

You finish with: Complete referrals queued and gaps followed up.

Step 4 — Measure and refine

Goal: Show faster, more reliable intake.

  1. Track time from referral received to first contact.
  2. Track referrals incomplete at first review.
  3. Alert on referrals waiting longer than agreed.
  4. Add services or sources only after the first one works.

You finish with: Measured intake time and fewer stalled referrals.

Common pitfalls

  • Letting the system set clinical priority or decide suitability.
  • Reading referrals from unapproved inboxes or storing them outside approved systems.
  • Retyping details by hand after capture, which defeats the purpose.
  • Starting with every service and source at once.

See it as a workflow

Operations

Referral intake tracking

Read incoming referrals from email, portals or scanned forms, capture the administrative details, check that the required paperwork is attached, and queue each referral for scheduling staff, so fewer referrals sit unread or incomplete.

See the workflow

More guides like this

Related answers

Read as Markdown Connect your tools