What happens when an eReferral is sent with more than one Health Service Offering requested? (eReferral Splitting)

In some referral pathways, such as the Diagnostic Imaging pathway, it is common for a patient to be referred to a listing with more than one Health Service requested (for example a referral for a CT and an Ultrasound).

In these cases, rather than having the referrer complete two separate referral forms (one for the CT and one for the Ultrasound), the referral form at the recipient site can be designed to allow both exams to be requested on the same referral.

  • Here's an example of a referral form where the referring provider can select more than one exam.
  • Note: Selecting more than one exam will assign more than one Health Service Offering to the referral form. This will give the recipient the opportunity to "split" the referral into separate referrals - one for each offering assigned.

The Splitting Policy

  • As the referral recipient, you can configure your listing to automatically "split" referrals into multiple referrals that can be managed separately within your Ocean site. This setting is configured from the Admin Settings page by clicking on Directory Listings. From here, scroll down to the eReferral Policy section, and you should see a box next to Splitting Policy.
  • If the Splitting Policy is enabled at the recipient site, the referral will automatically come into the New box as separate referrals. The sender will see the same thing occur in their sent folders.
  • If the Splitting Policy on a listing is turned off (left unchecked), the referral will come into the site as a single referral with multiple services assigned to it.
  • The recipient can review the referral first and choose to split it into multiple referrals (one for each service). This manual split can be done using the "Split" button displayed at the bottom of these referrals when opened.

The Relationship between Split Referrals

  • When referrals are split, a relationship is established between the original referral that was sent, called the "Source" referral, and each of individual referrals that were generated after the split. These individual referrals are commonly referred to as "Child" referrals. Both the Source Referral and each of the Child referrals can be found listed in the Related Referrals section, displayed at the bottom of each split referral.
The Source Referral
  • The Source Referral can be viewed if the referral sender or recipient would like to see a summary of the original referral that was submitted, and a list of each Child referral and their corresponding statuses.
  • The Source Referral can be accessed from the Action menu of each of the individual referrals.
  • Or it can be opened from the Related Referrals table, by clicking the "View Source Referral" link displayed on any of the individual Child referrals.
  • The Source Notes section on the Source Referral, can be used to add notes or information that is relevant to all of the related referrals.
  • Any notes added to this section will display on each of the Child referrals, separate from their Notes pane which captures notes specific to that individual referral.
  • Note: If there are no Source Notes added to the Source Referral, then this section will NOT display on the individual Child referrals.
The Child Referrals
  • When a Child referral is opened, any other Child referrals from the original split can be viewed, along with their status, in the Related Referrals section at the bottom of the referral view.
  • To navigate between these referrals, you can click on the name of the related referral, or click the "View Referral" link, in the right hand column of the Related Referrals table.
  • Note: After a referral is split, each of the child referrals will operate individually in Ocean, with its own appointments, status updates, email notifications, notes, and messages tied to it. 

The Referral Form Summary on Split Referrals

  • The Referral Form Summary is generated from the information filled out by the referring provider on the referral form. The Source Referral will display all of the information completed on the form, including sections that are applicable to each of the services selected.
  • In a standard referral split, that same Referral Form Summary will be displayed on each of the Child referrals that get generated. However, the referral form can also be designed at the recipient site to only display specific parts of the original Referral Form Summary on each of the child referrals. This is to help with the management, and triaging of each child referral. For example, when you view the Ultrasound child referral, you may only see the sections relevant to that service in the Referral Form Summary.
  • Note: Both the referral splitting, and the generation of these child referral form summaries, will depend on the design and configuration of the recipient's referral form and listing.

Deleting Source & Children Referrals

  • Source referrals cannot be deleted directly. Source referrals are automatically deleted when all their respective children referrals have been deleted first.
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