Refer a Patient to a Specialist

Create a referral letter and send it to a specialist securely from the Letter Writer section.

Before you begin

Make sure that the specialist's email address is recorded in the Address Book or to send via HealthLink, the recipients details are recorded in the HealthLink directory.

About this task

Letters emailed to other health providers are not password-protected. To email a registered health provider securely, select Secure Message Delivery (SMD) to send the letter via HealthLink directory.

Procedure

To create and send a patient referral to a specialist:

In a patient's Consult panel, click Letter Writer.

Tip:
If you cannot see the Letter Writer, click More and select the Letter Writer section.
From the Search list, enter and search the Specialist Referral letter template. For more information, refer to Write a Letter.

Tip:
Alternatively, if you have already added the Specialist Referral letter template to your favourites, from the Favourites list, select it. For more information about adding to favourites, see Template Favourites.
In the Select the HCP you are authoring for... window, search and select a HCP from the drop-down list click OK.
In the Presenting Problem field, enter the patient's presenting problem details.
If required, in the Address Book field, add a specialist's details:
- Search - search by specialist's name, organisation's name or speciality and select the addressee from the list.
- Near - to search for a specialist type by proximity:
  1. Set Near.
  2. Enter a suburb.
  3. Search for a specialty.
    Select from the specialists listed by proximity.
- Assign to HCP - to assign an HCP for the patient, set Assign to HCP.
To customise the clinical information included, expand Clinical summaries and select the sections you want to include in the specialist referral letter, such as current medications, conditions, immunisations, patient demographics and so on. For more information about other clinical summaries, see Letter Writer.
Click Save and Send. You are redirected to the Send Document panel.
For more information about other actions in the letter writer, see Actions in Letters.
To send a referral letter to the clinician or provider, in the Send Document panel, select Send to clinician or provider.
Select the required send options:
- Secure Message Delivery - send only to recipients who are recorded in the HealthLink Directory. This option is selected by default. To add a recipient:
  1. In the To field, click Directory lookup.
  2. In the Directory lookup window, search by the HCP's given name, specialty, location, organisation name or service type.
  3. From the Records found list, select the required recipient or hover your mouse over the required recipient in the Actions column and click Select.
    The selected recipient is automatically added to the To field.
    Note:
    If a potential recipient is not a HealthLink participant, an Information icon is displayed in the Actions column and you cannot select them.
  4. To send the referral letter to multiple recipients, repeat the steps a to c for each additional recipient.
  5. To add additional addressees, in the CC field, click Directory lookup and repeat the steps b to c if required.
- If emailing the letter, set Email and in the To field start typing the recipient and select them from the list.
  If a recipient's details are not recorded in the address book, to add a new recipient, click Add new address. For more information, see Add New Addresses.
  Note:
  Email is not secure and documents sent via email to HCPs are not password protected.
In the Message Content section, add details:
1. In the Subject field, edit the default subject line if required.
2. In the Body field, enter your messages.
To send a referral letter to a specialist, click Send.

Results

If successful, a message Request sent to SMD successfully pops up near the E-mail address area at the top.

A specialist referral letter with its status is added to the Consult icon

Consult > Consult actions > Other actionsActions section at the bottom of the Consult panel.
Specialist Referral -Print Example

What to do next

In the Actions Consult icon

Consult > Consult actions > Other actions section, if required:

To print a copy of the document, click Print.
To reprint the document, hover your mouse over the printed document and click Reprint.
Note:
Once printed, the icon will be changed to .
To delete the document, hover your mouse over the required document and click Delete.
To modify and send the referral again, click to open the Send Document window.

When the consultation is complete:

To view the sent documents, in the Patient Timeline panel, select Specialist from the Show: list, then select one referral letter from the specialist referral list. The selected document is displayed in the Preview window. For more information about controlling the documents, see Document Controls.
The document is also displayed in Message Centre > OutboxMessage Centre > SMD Outbox section. For more information, see SMD Outbox.