How to view a new referral

New referrals appear inside your Referral Intel practice portal.

Your team can open each referral to review patient information, referring provider details, referral notes, attachments, and the current referral status.

Short answer

From there, your team can view the referral details, check attachments, confirm the referring provider, and decide the next step.

Where new referrals appear

New referrals appear in the patient referrals area of your Referral Intel portal.

This is where your team can see referred patients and track where each patient is in the referral workflow.

A new referral may appear after:

A referring provider submits the online referral form
Your team manually adds a referral
A referral is entered from fax, email, phone, or paper
A patient self-refers, if your workflow allows it

What you may see in the referral list

The referral list gives your team a quick overview of referred patients.

Depending on your setup, the list may include information such as:

Patient name
Referring provider
Referring organization
Practice location
Requested provider
Referral status
Referral date
Reason for referral

This allows your team to quickly see which referrals need attention.

How to open a referral

To view a new referral:

Log in to your Referral Intel portal.
Go to the patient referrals area.
Find the referral you want to review.
Select or open the referral.
Review the referral details.
Check whether attachments were included.
Confirm the current referral status.
Decide the next action.

What to review first

When opening a new referral, review the most important details first.

Start with:

Patient name
Patient contact information
Referring provider
Referring organization
Reason for referral
Requested location
Requested provider
Attachments or supporting records
Notes from the referring office

This helps your team understand what needs to happen next.

Check for missing information

Before contacting the patient, confirm that the referral includes the information your team needs.

Common missing items may include:

Patient phone number
Patient email address
Date of birth
Referring provider name
Referring office contact information
Reason for referral
Attachments
Insurance or scheduling information, if your practice collects it at this stage

If important information is missing, your team may need to contact the referring office or follow your practice’s normal process.

Review attachments

If the referring provider uploaded files, review the attachment section.

Attachments may include:

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

Your team can view or download attachments as needed.

Confirm the referring provider

Make sure the referral is connected to the correct referring provider and organization.

This is important because accurate referral source information affects:

Referring provider history
Referral source dashboards
New referrer tracking
Lapsed referrer tracking
Outreach and relationship management
Reporting accuracy

If the referring provider name was entered inconsistently, your team may need to link or clean up the referral source information.

Review the referral status

A new referral will usually begin in a referred status.

As the patient moves forward, your team should update the status.

For example:

If the patient schedules, update the referral to Scheduled.
If the patient does not respond, follow your practice’s workflow for non-response.
If care or treatment is presented later, update the referral accordingly.
If the patient declines, mark the referral appropriately.

Keeping status updated helps dashboards and automations work correctly.

What happens after you view a new referral?

After reviewing a new referral, your team should decide the next step.

Common next steps include:

Contact the patient
Let automations begin follow-up
Request missing information from the referring office
Download attachments
Create a patient chart in your EHR or practice management system
Update referral status
Assign the referral to the appropriate team member
Schedule the patient
Add notes for the team

Your practice should decide who is responsible for each step.

Best practice: review new referrals daily

Your team should review new referrals at least once each business day.

This helps prevent referrals from sitting unnoticed and allows your team to follow up while the referral is still fresh.

Many practices make Referral Intel part of the front desk or referral coordinator’s daily workflow.

Best practice: keep referral status current

Viewing the referral is only the first step.

The referral should be updated as the patient moves through the process.

Accurate status updates help your team know:

Who still needs to be contacted
Who has scheduled
Who did not respond
Who needs treatment or care follow-up
Which referral sources are converting
Where patients are dropping off

Best practice: avoid duplicate records

Before manually adding a referral, search for the patient first.

This helps prevent duplicate referral records.

Duplicates can make dashboards less accurate and may create confusion for the team.

Common mistake: reviewing the referral but not updating status

If a patient schedules but the referral still shows as Referred, your dashboard data may be inaccurate and automations may continue unnecessarily.

Update the referral status as soon as the patient moves forward.

Common mistake: missing attachments

Do not assume attachments were reviewed just because a referral was opened.

Make sure your team checks the attachment section and follows your practice’s workflow for downloading or moving files.

Common mistake: ignoring referral source cleanup

If the referring provider or organization is entered inconsistently, your reporting may become less accurate.

For example, the same referring provider may appear under slightly different names.

Keep referral source information clean whenever possible.

How to manually add a referral
How to update referral status
What each referral status means
How attachments and X-rays work
When to create a patient chart in your PMS or EHR