How attachments and X-rays work

Referral Intel allows referring providers to include files when they submit a referral.

This helps your team keep referral information, images, records, and documents organized before the patient is scheduled or entered into your practice management system or EHR.

Short answer

Referring providers can upload attachments through your online referral form.

Once the referral is submitted, those files are stored with the referral inside your Referral Intel portal, where your team can review or download them as needed.

What types of attachments can be included?

Depending on your practice and referral workflow, attachments may include:

X-rays
Radiographs
Images
Clinical photos
Records
Referral forms
Treatment notes
Letters
PDFs
Other supporting documents

The exact file types and size limits may depend on your Referral Intel setup.

Why attachments are helpful

Attachments help your team review the referral more efficiently.

They may give your practice important context before the patient is scheduled, such as:

Why the patient was referred
What concern needs to be evaluated
What images or records are already available
Which provider sent the referral
Whether additional information is needed

This can reduce the need to chase missing files by phone, fax, or email.

Where attachments appear

Attachments are stored with the referral record inside your Referral Intel portal.

To find them:

Log in to your practice portal.
Open the referral.
Review the referral details.
Look for the attachments section.
View or download the files as needed.

Your team can keep the files in Referral Intel until the patient is ready for the next step.

Do attachments create a patient chart?

No.

Uploading attachments to Referral Intel does not automatically create a patient chart in your practice management system or EHR.

Referral Intel is designed to help your practice manage the referral before the patient is fully entered into your main clinical system.

Your team can create the patient chart later, according to your practice workflow.

When should attachments be moved to the EHR or practice management system?

Move attachments into your main system when your practice protocol requires it.

Common times include:

When the patient schedules
Before the first appointment
When the chart is created
When clinical review is needed
When your team confirms the referral is moving forward

Referral Intel helps hold the referral information in an organized place until your team is ready to move it into the clinical record.

What if the patient never schedules?

If the patient never schedules, the attachment can remain associated with the referral in Referral Intel.

This can be helpful because your team can still see:

Who referred the patient
When the referral was submitted
What information was provided
Whether follow-up was attempted
Whether the referring office was notified

Your practice can decide whether or when to archive or remove older referral information based on your internal policies.

Can attachments be added manually?

If your practice receives files outside the online referral form, your team may need to manage those according to your workflow.

For example, referrals may still arrive by:

Fax
Email
Paper
Phone
Direct provider communication

If the referral is manually added to Referral Intel, your team should follow your current process for storing or attaching the related files.

Best practice: encourage referring offices to upload files through the referral form

The cleanest workflow is for referring offices to submit the referral and upload any related files at the same time.

This helps your team avoid searching across multiple systems.

Instead of looking in one place for the referral and another place for the image or record, your team can review the referral and attachments together.

Best practice: check attachments before contacting the patient

Before reaching out to a referred patient, review whether attachments were submitted.

This can help your team understand the reason for referral and identify whether anything important is missing.

If needed, your team can contact the referring office for additional information.

Best practice: use clear internal workflows

Your practice should decide who is responsible for reviewing and moving attachments.

For example:

Front desk reviews new referrals for missing information
Referral coordinator downloads files when needed
Clinical team reviews images or records before the appointment
Office manager confirms the workflow is being followed

Clear responsibility helps prevent attachments from being missed.

Common mistake: assuming all files were uploaded

Do not assume the referral includes every file your team needs.

Sometimes referring offices submit the form but forget to upload attachments.

If important files are missing, contact the referring office or follow your practice’s normal process for requesting them.

Common mistake: creating a full patient chart too early

Some practices create a chart only after the patient schedules.

Referral Intel can help your team avoid creating full patient records for every referral before the patient has committed to an appointment.

Follow your practice’s policy for when a chart should be created.

Common mistake: storing files in too many places

If attachments are scattered across email, fax folders, shared drives, and Referral Intel, it can be hard for the team to know where to look.

Try to create a consistent workflow so your team knows where referral-related files should live at each stage.

How to share your referral form link
How to embed the referral form on your website
How to view a new referral
How to manually add a referral
When to create a patient chart in your PMS or EHR