Once your referral is ready, you can send it to the recipient via email. They'll receive a secure link to the Referral Portal, a dedicated app where they can view the referral details, respond with messages, and share files back with your practice.
Step 1: Sending the Referral
When you're ready to send, use Send Referral in the toolbar. This opens a compose email dialog so you can customise the message before it goes out.
Click Send Referral in the toolbar.
A compose email dialog opens with the following fields:
To: The recipient's email address. This is pre-filled and cannot be changed here.
Subject: A default subject line that you can edit.
Message: A default email body that you can customise using the rich text editor.
Edit the Subject and Message fields as needed.
Click Send Referral to send.
Note: A link to view the referral will be automatically included in the email. You do not need to add the link yourself.
After sending, the referral's status automatically changes to Sent.
Step 2: Notifying the Recipient of Changes
After the initial send, the toolbar action changes to Notify Recipient of Changes. Use this whenever you've updated the referral and want to let the recipient know.
Make your changes to the referral (for example, add a new message, upload a file, or update patient information).
Click Notify Recipient of Changes in the toolbar.
The same compose email dialog opens — customise the notification message to describe what has changed.
Click Send to notify the recipient.
The recipient will receive a new email with a link back to their portal view of the referral.
Step 3: What the Recipient Receives
The recipient receives an email in their inbox containing a button to view the referral.
The email includes a View Referral button (or link).
Clicking it opens the Referral Portal — a secure, separate application from Principle.
The recipient accesses the portal using a secure one-time password sent to their email address.
Step 4: The Referral Portal — Dashboard
The Referral Portal dashboard lists all referrals they have received from any practice.
Columns displayed: Patient, Practice, From, Urgency, Referral ID
Use the search field to find a referral by patient name or referral ID
Referrals with unread updates are highlighted with bold text, a coloured background, and a dot indicator
Step 5: The Referral Portal & Viewing a Referral
Clicking a referral in the portal opens a detailed view. The layout is similar to the referral view inside Principle, but with reduced access — the portal is designed for external recipients, not internal staff.
The portal referral view has three tabs:
Messages: The same communication thread you see inside Principle. The recipient can read messages, send replies, and upload files from their computer. Internal Notes, Clinical Notes, and Interactions are not visible and cannot be accessed from the portal.
Files: View and download all files that have been shared on the referral. The recipient can also upload new files from their computer. They cannot access files from the patient's record in Principle.
Information: A read-only view of the patient details (based on the visibility settings you configured) and the referrer's contact information.
Note: The recipient does NOT have access to the Patient Letter tab, internal Notes, Interactions, the Followers feature, or the ability to change the referral status. They can only communicate via Messages, view Files, and read shared Information.
Step 6: Receiving a Reply from the Recipient
When the recipient sends a message or uploads files through the portal, their response appears directly in the referral's Messages tab inside Principle. Anyone following the referral will receive a notification.
Spotting unread replies on the dashboard:
Referrals with unread updates appear with bold text, a coloured background, and a dot indicator on the dashboard.
Click the Needs Action toggle to filter the dashboard and show only referrals with unread updates — useful when you have a large number of referrals.
To read the reply:
On the Referrals dashboard, find the highlighted referral (or use the Needs Action filter).
Click the referral to open it.
Navigate to the Messages tab to see the recipient's reply or newly uploaded files.
You now have the full picture! You should now be able to create a referral, manage it, send a patient letter, and communicate with external recipients through the Referral Portal. For a complete overview, see Getting Started with Patient Referrals.
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