Patient Referrals is a two-way communication system for managing patient referrals between your practice and external contacts like specialists or other practices. You can create and track both outgoing and incoming referrals, communicate with recipients, share files, and keep your team in the loop — all from one place.
Step 1: Accessing Patient Referrals
To open the Patient Referrals dashboard, find Referrals in the sidebar and click it. The dashboard loads with a list of all referrals your practice has created.
Step 2: Understanding the Dashboard
The dashboard gives you a full view of all your referrals in one place, with tools to search, filter, and take action quickly.
Table columns:
Patient: The patient the referral relates to
Type: Whether the referral is Outgoing (sent to an external contact) or Incoming (received from an external contact)
Status: The current stage of the referral (Draft, Sent, Received, or Completed)
Created On: The date the referral was created
Urgency: Whether the referral is Routine or Emergency
From: Who the referral is being sent from
To: Who the referral is addressed to
Searching and filtering:
Use the search field to find a referral by referral ID or patient name
Use the Type dropdown to filter by Incoming or Outgoing
Use the Status filter to select one or more statuses at once
Use the date range picker to narrow results by creation date
Toggle Needs Action to show only referrals that have unread replies from recipients — a badge displays the count of referrals needing your attention
Unread referrals appear bold with a highlighted background so they stand out at a glance.
Action menu:
Click the three-dot menu in the Action column to quickly change a referral's status, Edit it, Open Patient, or Delete it without having to open the full referral.
Step 3: Understanding Referral Statuses
Every referral moves through a lifecycle tracked by its status. There are four statuses:
Draft: Referral is being prepared, not yet sent
Sent: Referral has been sent to the recipient
Received: The referral has either been manually marked as received by your team or indicates that a response has been received from the recipient.
Completed: Referral process is finished
Note: Once a referral has been sent to a recipient via email, it can no longer be reverted to Draft. All other status transitions are available from any status.
You can change a referral's status in two ways:
From within the referral itself by using the status menu in the toolbar.
From the dashboard by clicking the three-dot menu on the referral row and choose a new status.
Step 4: Creating an Outgoing Referral
Use an outgoing referral when your practice is sending a patient to an external contact, such as a specialist.
On the dashboard, click Create Referral
In the dialog that opens, confirm that Outgoing is selected as the type (it is selected by default)
Choose the Patient - this field is required
Select who the referral is From - typically a staff member at your practice
Select who the referral is To - an external contact such as a specialist. You can filter the contact list by tags to quickly find the right recipient
If your account has multiple practices, select the appropriate From Practice
Set the Urgency - choose Routine for standard referrals, or Emergency for urgent cases
Click Create
The referral is created with a status of Draft and opens ready for you to add more detail.
Step 5: Creating an Incoming Referral
Use an incoming referral when your practice is receiving a referral from an external contact, for example, when a GP refers a patient to your practice.
The process is the same as creating an outgoing referral, but with one key difference: toggle the type to Incoming at the top of the dialog.
When Incoming is selected, the From and To fields swap roles:
From is now an external contact (the referrer)
To is now a staff member at your practice (who will receive the referral)
Note: Use incoming referrals when your practice is the destination, for example, when a GP refers a patient to your practice. Use outgoing referrals when your practice is initiating the referral and sending a patient elsewhere.
Now that you know how to navigate the dashboard and create referrals, the next article covers how to manage a referral — communicating with recipients, sharing files, and more. Continue to Managing a Referral.