e-Referral Services (2)

How do referrals work in hospitals?

According to the executive mechanism of the e-referral services, Level 1 centers are required to employ family and general practitioners and nursing groups by providing primary prevention and treatment services at home and community, and completing electronic health records, Refer patients to higher levels of treatment if needed.

The referral process is in such a way that after accurate diagnosis by the family doctor, If necessary, the doctor examines the patient by a specialist, the doctor determines which specialist and in which center to refer the patient to continue treatment and takes turns for the patient.

Generally, the problem that arises in this is the lack of coordination and order in determining and diagnosing the working hours of physicians, as well as the lack of order in managing the appointments of medical centers.

e-referral services are for managing the queuing process in a way that minimizes waste of time, effort and energy for physicians and patients.

The patient’s appointment is registered in the comprehensive system of the Ministry of Health and in accordance with the process after the patient’s visit and completing the information in the electronic file, the specialist returns it to the family physician for further follow-up of treatment.

Advantages of using a e-referral services

• Record the information structure of the physician program including date, time, insurance, specialty and etc
• Manage appointment of doctors
• Possibility of change and canceling appointments by the patient and the doctor
• Ability to generate and save a series of special appointments for the e-referral services to the desired number in advance reserved separately for each doctor on each working day
• Ability to announce the status of the turn (visited, not visited, accepted, not accepted, visited, not visited)
• Avoid wasting time and energy of specialists, especially doctors
• Avoiding irregularities in shifts and crowds in medical centers
• Ability to assign appointments for physicians separately by e-referral services appointments and free appointments
• Ability to specify the duration of the visit according to the opinion of each medical center for doctors

Maryam Ghalandari