Referrals

February 2026 · 6 min

The Referrals module ensures seamless handoffs when a patient needs specialist evaluation. Whether it is an internal referral to another department (Cardiology, Orthopaedics, ENT) or an external referral to a higher centre, Bio-Ecko packages the relevant clinical context, tracks specialist response times, and captures feedback so that the referring physician stays in the loop throughout the referral lifecycle.

Creating a Referral

From the OPD consultation screen, EMR, or the standalone Referrals page:

1. Select the patient (auto-populated during consultation)
2. Choose referral type: Internal (to another department/doctor within the hospital) or External (to another facility)
3. Select the target department, doctor, or enter external facility details
4. Set urgency: Routine (within a week), Urgent (within 24 hours), or Emergency (immediate)
5. Add a clinical summary and specific reason for referral
6. Attach relevant reports, lab results, imaging, or ECG PDFs
7. Optionally specify the question you want the specialist to answer

The referred doctor/department receives an in-app notification, email, and optional SMS. They can view the referral along with the patient's full clinical context from a single screen.

Referral Tracking & Status

Every referral moves through a clear status pipeline:

• Pending: sent but not yet acknowledged by the specialist
• Accepted: the specialist has acknowledged and scheduled the consultation
• In Progress: consultation is underway
• Completed: the specialist has documented findings and recommendations
• Declined: the specialist redirected the referral (with reason and suggested alternative)

The referring physician can track all sent referrals from a single dashboard, with colour-coded urgency indicators and overdue alerts for referrals that have not been acknowledged within the expected timeframe.

Specialist Feedback & Recommendations

Once the specialist completes the consultation, they document their findings directly in the referral: diagnosis, recommended treatment plan, medications suggested, further investigations needed, and follow-up instructions. This feedback is immediately visible to the referring physician and becomes part of the patient EMR.

For surgical consultations, the specialist can initiate an OT booking request directly from the referral. For ongoing shared care, the referral can be converted to a co-management arrangement where both physicians have access to the patient chart.

External Referral & Transfer

External referrals generate a structured referral letter that can be printed or emailed:

• Patient demographics and clinical summary
• Relevant investigation results (lab, imaging, ECG)
• Current medications and allergies
• Specific clinical question or reason for transfer
• Referring doctor details and contact information

For patient transfers, the module integrates with the ambulance/fleet system to arrange transport and generates the transfer documentation required by regulatory authorities.

Referral Analytics

The analytics dashboard tracks referral patterns to help hospital management understand care pathways:

• Top referring departments and doctors
• Top referred-to specialties (where are patients being sent?)
• Average referral-to-consultation time by urgency level
• Referral completion rates and decline rates
• External referral destinations (which hospitals are patients being sent to?)
• Revenue impact analysis for internal referrals

These insights help identify gaps in in-house specialty coverage and guide hiring/equipment decisions.

Notes

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