How to Send a Referral

Introduction

Referrals allow you to transfer a patient's care to another team within CAREFUL. When you send a referral, the receiving team can review the request and choose to accept or reject it. This is commonly used for specialist consultations, ward transfers, or when a patient needs care from a different clinical team.

Before You Start

• You must be a member of the team currently caring for the patient
• The patient must be active in your team
• You need to know which team you want to refer the patient to

Steps

Method 1: Full Referral (Recommended - includes clinical details)

1. From the sidebar, select My Teams or navigate to the Organisation view to see all patients
2. Click on the patient you want to refer to open their patient detail page
3. Click the dropdown menu (⋮) on the patient profile page
4. Select Refer Patient to Team from the menu
5. A dialog box titled "Submit Referral request for patient [Patient Name]" appears
6. In the From Team field, select the team sending the referral (or it will be auto-selected if the patient is only in one team)
7. In the To Team dropdown, select the team you want to refer the patient to (required)
8. In the Reason for Referral text area, type your clinical justification - the placeholder suggests using SBAR format (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation) for clarity
9. Optionally, attach supporting documents using the Attachments file upload
10. If you want the receiving team to automatically accept the referral and discharge the patient from your team, check the Transfer Immediately checkbox
11. Click the Refer button to submit the referral
12. The dialog closes and the referral now appears in your team's "Referrals Sent" list

Method 2: Quick Referral (faster but minimal details)

1. From any patient table view (such as My Teams or Organisation), locate the patient you want to refer
2. Select the patient - this opens the "Submit referral request for [Patient Name]" dialog
3. In the search field that appears, start typing the name of the team you want to refer to - the placeholder says "Start typing a teams name to search..."
4. Select the correct team from the search results (teams that cannot receive the referral will show a reason in parentheses)
5. Click the Submit referral request button
6. The referral is sent and appears in the "Referrals Sent" list

Viewing Your Sent Referrals

1. Navigate to your team page by selecting it from My Teams
2. Click the Referrals tab
3. View the Referrals Sent section to see all outgoing referrals and their status
4. If you need to cancel a pending referral, click the Cancel button next to it

Tips

• Use the full referral method when possible - providing clinical context helps the receiving team make informed decisions about accepting the patient
• SBAR format is recommended for the "Reason for Referral" field: describe the Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation
• Transfer Immediately is useful when you've already coordinated with the receiving team and want to streamline the process
• Check the Referrals tab regularly to monitor the status of your sent referrals - you'll see when they're accepted or rejected
• Badge notifications appear in the sidebar next to teams that have pending referrals, helping you stay aware of incoming requests
• If a team cannot be selected in the search, hover over the reason displayed to understand why (e.g., they may already be caring for the patient)

Related Features

• How to Accept a Referral - Learn how to review and accept incoming referrals to your team
• How to Hand Over a Patient - For transferring responsibility within your team rather than to another team
• How to Discharge a Patient - For when a patient no longer needs care from your team