From Paper to Digital The Future of Referral Management

From Paper to Digital: The Future of Referral Management

Switching to paperless is more than an environmental imperative, it’s also savvy business practice, with research showing electronic referrals can lead to substantial savings, along with faster processing times and reduced waiting periods for patients

For healthcare organisations managing a large intake of referrals, paper-based systems can create bottlenecks and pose security risks, such as referral loss or misplacement. MasterCare+ Referral Management enables organisations to go paperless with electronic referrals (e-referrals), supporting streamlined triage, monitoring, and fast, efficient report generation. 

Moving to Paperless with Digital Referrals

Paperless systems are no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity for healthcare providers. MasterCare+ simplifies the referral process by offering a tailored digital solution that includes: 

  • Self-referral links for patients – with our intuitive interface, patients can complete self-referrals, registration forms, pre-admission forms, consent forms, and surveys online.  
  • Customisable healthcare professional referral forms – with secure, user-friendly links for healthcare professionals to submit referrals. These can be personalised to meet various needs, capturing the right information upfront to expedite care delivery. 
  • Direct to inbox convenience – with ReferralNet Secure Messaging built into the system, inbound referrals arrive directly in the MasterCare+ inbox to await triage , reducing manual data entry and saving valuable time. 
  • Centralised data management – all referral forms, whether submitted by patients or healthcare professionals, are stored in a secure centralised system. This facilitates quick access, enhanced security, and reduced administrative burden. 

Going paperless not only reduces costs but also improves the patient experience by simplifying their journey. 

Streamline Triage Processes

Efficient, accurate triage is integral to effective care delivery, and research has shown an e-referral system can help health organisations triage a high volume of referrals. MasterCare+ offers easy-to-use tools to process referrals with precision, including: 

  • Action-oriented options – reply, forward, or reject referrals based on clinical appropriateness. 
  • Document integration – attach previous clinical information, imaging results, or other relevant documentation to referrals, ensuring clinicians have a complete picture. 
  • Enhanced communication – provide immediate feedback to referrers, fostering interprofessional collaboration. 

By streamlining triage, organisations can ensure that every referral is dealt with appropriately, helping to eliminate needless delays and improve patient outcomes. 

Monitor Progress with Customisable Dashboards 

To meet your organisational goals and foster healthy relationships with your referral partners, it’s essential to have a system for referral tracking. MasterCare+ includes dashboards that allow you to: 

  • Set and monitor KPIs – you can define your own key performance indicators, such as processing times. For example, you can set the solution up so your administrative team must process and assign referrals within two days, and your clinical team triages them within one day. 
  • Visualise workflows – gain real-time insights into referral statuses, helping you identify and resolve bottlenecks (a high-value benefit, with one study finding 89% of participants reported they were better able to track referrals after the implementation of e-referral management). 
  • Adapt to changing needs – our dashboards can be configured to reflect your priorities and focus areas, ensuring they remain a valuable management tool as your organisation evolves or responds to changing circumstances. 

Generate Comprehensive Reports 

Reporting is critical for evaluating performance and planning future improvements. MasterCare+ makes this process simple with its ability to generate insightful and meaningful reports. You can benefit from: 

  • Referral insights – create detailed reports on referral types, volumes, processing times, and other key metrics. 
  • Data-driven decision-making – use insights from reports to identify trends, allocate resources, and address areas needing improvement. 

With these reporting tools, healthcare organisations can assess their processes and drive improvements confident that they are based on relevant, robust data. 

The Proven Benefits of MasterCare+ Referral Management 

Wondering whether an e-referral management system is right for your organisation? Peninsula Health knew they needed to replace an old paper-based system that was creating challenges like incomplete referrals, information security risks, and vulnerability to rising paper and postage costs. 

By adopting MasterCare+, they benefited from: 

  • Higher quality, more secure referrals 
  • Improvements to risk management, patient service and stakeholder communication 
  • Enhanced productivity. 

All this added up to projected costs savings of $60,000 – $100,000 per year. 

To learn more about how MasterCare+ can help you streamline referral management, book a demo of our solution or contact our sales team. 

About MasterCare

At MasterCare, we help Australian health providers better meet the needs of their communities.

Healthcare is a complex business, and compliance regulations and funding requirements have made it increasingly difficult for modern-day service providers to deliver excellent care. We listen and work with our customers to create tailored software solutions and SaaS, so our clients can simply focus on delivering services that result in better patient outcomes for their communities.

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