Guide to Receiving eReferrals

Importing eReferral Requests into Your EMR

Learn how to import notes from eReferral requisition forms from the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal into the patient's chart in your EMR.
- After you've accepted an eReferral, an "Import" window will appear.
PS Suite Oscar Accuro Other EMR
Note: If you're a PSS user, on Cloud Connect, Ocean will look for a patient with a matching health card number and automatically import the referral into their chart.
If you use non-integrated EMR, you can download the submission and upload it into your EMR as a PDF.
Managing Incoming eReferrals

Learn about where eReferrals appear and move within the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal, as well as how incoming eReferrals can be managed.

You can view and manage all of your received eReferrals from the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal.

Simply click on the patient to manage its next steps, including triaging the referral, accepting the referral, booking an appointment for the referral, sending a message to the referrer, etc.
- Once you receive a new eReferral or if there is a status change in any of your eReferrals, your clinic's indicated referral notification email address will be sent a notification email. Please refer to the "eReferral Notification Email Rules" article to learn more about who, when, and why Ocean eReferral notification are sent.
- The referred patient will also be sent email updates about their eReferral, provided that an email address was included in the original referral and the referral indicates that patient consented to be contacted via email.
- All incoming eReferrals will appear in the eReferrals View in the Ocean Portal.
  Note: Please review "What do the Different eReferral Inboxes Mean?" to learn more about the different inboxes that are used to manage eReferrals.
- There are several features available to help isolate specific referral(s). The "Filter" search box allows you to search by patient surname, referring clinician name, or provider name. The listing dropdown menu allows you to choose referrals for a specific listing or health service offering within that listing. You may also sort referrals by the "Description", "Date Sent", "Source", "Site", "Provider", "Protocol", "Priority", or "Noted" columns. Click the column description once to sort the referrals in ascending values, and click it again to sort them in descending values.
- Click anywhere on the line of your selected referral to open it.
  Note: To learn more about the various icons and buttons you will see when managing incoming eReferrals, please review "What do the Icons and Buttons in eReferrals Mean?"
- If the patient demographic information requires correction, click the icon beside their name to update these fields. Use the "Accept" or "Decline" buttons to accept or decline the referral.
  Note: This will move the referral to your Pending Booking or Declined inbox depending on which option is selected.
- If the referral requires review by another user at your site, use this button to select the individual and notify them.
  Note: This action will move the eReferral to your Needs Review inbox.
- Use the scheduling pane to enter the patient's appointment information and any relevant booking notes or attachments. If the appointment has already been confirmed with the patient, select the Confirmed checkbox.
  Note: Any updates to the Scheduling pane will trigger an email notification to the patient, referrer, and any other stakeholders on the referral. The notification will include the appointment dates, times, and medium information, as well as any additional comments or attachments that are included. If the appointment has not been confirmed, the patient will have the option of confirming the appointment electronically.
- If an appointment can not be scheduled right away, you can communicate an estimated wait time to the referring provider by selecting it from the "Anticipated Time to Appointment" drop down menu in the scheduling pane. This action will update the status of the referral for the referring provider but will not trigger an email notification unless booking comments are added.
- To update wait times for multiple referrals at once, select "Update Wait Times" from the "Actions" menu in the eReferrals View. Enter the health service you would like to update along with the updated wait times. You may optionally specify the priority or dates to limit the update to apply only to specific referrals.
- Use this action menu to access additional functions available to you, such as printing, downloading, or exporting the referral. For details on each Action Menu item, please review "What do the different eReferral Action Menu Items mean?"
- Add a note to the referral using free text or one of the options from the drop-down menu here. You may also triage the referral using the "Review..." option.
- You may exchange information securely with the referrer using the Messaging pane of the referral. Enter any text, canned responses, or attachments you would like to send and then press the "Send" button. The recipient will then be notified of your message by email and may log in to the Ocean portal to view it securely.
Adding Appointment Details to eReferrals

Learn how to add appointment details to eReferrals in order to update patients and referring providers with appointment dates, times, mediums, and other scheduling details.
- Appointment information can be added, edited, or removed by referral recipients at any point in an eReferral's lifecycle.
- Most commonly though, this is done from the Pending Booking folder of the eReferrals view.
- From the referral list, users can click to open the referral that requires updating and navigate to the Scheduling pane. Here, details such as appointment date and time can be added and saved on the referral. This information can also be pulled in directly from the EMR.
- Updates to the Scheduling pane will result in automatic email notifications being sent to the patient (if the patient provided email consent), the referring provider, and any other stakeholders on the referral (such as a Central Intake site).
- Examples of Patient Booking Notification emails can be found here.
- Steps for updating the Scheduling pane are outlined below:
PS Suite Oscar Oscar Pro Accuro Other EMR
If you are a PS Suite user you can continue to book appointments for patients in the PSS scheduling system. Once the appointment has been added, you can navigate to the patient chart and launch the Ocean eReferral Appointment Notification Custom Form to pull the appointment details onto the eReferral. Details on this workflow can be found here.
If you use Oscar you can add the appointment to the Oscar scheduler, but will need to manually update the eReferral. This can be done by opening the patient's Encounter Chart, selecting the active eReferrals link on the Ocean Toolbar to launch into the Patient's Dashboard. Open the matching referral and manually add in the appointment date and time.
If you use Oscar Pro you can add the appointment to the Oscar scheduler. Then, select the Ocean shortcut on the appointment to open the Ocean eForm. Choose Update Referral to launch into the Patient Dashboard and update the referral with the appointment date and time pulled in from the EMR. Details on this workflow can be found here.
If you are using Accuro you can add the appointment to the Accuro scheduler. Then, select the Send Appointment Notification CDS link or button to launch into the Patient Dashboard. Select the appropriate referral to update with the appointment date and time pulled in from the EMR. Details on this workflow can be found here.
If you use a non-integrated EMR, you can open the eReferral directly in the eReferrals view of the Ocean Portal, navigate to the Scheduling pane, and add the appointment date and time details there.
- In the Scheduling pane of the eReferral, choose the appropriate Appointment Label. These labels can be configured on your directory listings, as outlined in Step 4 of this set up guide.
Note: If the appointment date and time was pulled in directly from the EMR in Step A, move to Step E. Otherwise, continue on to Step C.
- If adding the appointment manually, click into the appointment Date field to pop up the calendar date picker. Select a date to populate the field.
Note: You can start to type in a time to shorten the list of options to choose from. This time dropdown is also configurable for your site, and can be edited by following this set up step.
- Click the Medium dropdown and select how the appointment will occur. This dropdown will default to In Person, at the address of the Directory Listing that the referral belongs to.
Note: If the "In Person (Alternate Location Specified in Booking Comments)" is selected, you will be prompted to add details to the booking comments before saving the referral.
- If confirming the date and time with the patient at the time of booking the appointment, check off the Confirmed box. This will move the referral to the Booked Confirmed folder. If leaving it to the patient or referring provider to confirm the appointment, leave the Confirmed box unchecked, and the referral will move to the Booked Unconfirmed folder in the portal, at the time of saving.
Note: The bottom of the Scheduling pane will indicate whether the patient will receive the notification by email, or if they need to be notified separately.

Note: If the patient or stakeholder on the referral confirms the appointment, the user and time of the confirmation will be automatically stamped in the scheduling pane. If Accuro or Oscar Pro were used to update the appointments on the eReferral, the confirmation update will also automatically update the EMR's scheduled appointment state to confirmed.
- To add another appointment to the Scheduling pane, click the "+" icon on the right hand side and repeat the steps outlined above. To cancel or remove an appointment from the eReferral, select the "-" icon to the right of the appointment. See this support article for further details.
- If there is additional information regarding the appointment(s) you would like to share with the patient and stakeholders on the eReferral, you can type in Booking Comments. Alternatively, use the canned booking comments feature to add in a set of standard information. Canned booking comments can be setup by following this guide.
- Booking Attachments can be added by clicking the paperclip icon in the Scheduling pane. These will be included in the patient booking email notifications.
- Select Save or Save and Close to save your booking changes and trigger the email notifications to the referrer and patient.
Viewing a Patient's Referral History

If you ever need to inquire about any Ocean eReferral(s) that have been received and processed for a certain patient in the past, you can easily look this up in the patient's eReferral history in Ocean.

For sites receiving eReferrals, it may be valuable to know if the patient has been referred to your site before, and some details of the previous referral(s). Fortunately, you can view a patient's "Referral History" directly from the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal.

Note: A health number and birth date must be included in the referral, in order for Ocean to identify the patient's referral history. This is because these two values are used to generate a unique patient identifier that is stored in Ocean with the referral.
- The "Referral History" captures the following referral information: Description, Status, Referring Site, Booked Date, Referral Date, Referrer, Provider, Protocol, and Priority.
Similar to referral analytics, because this referral history contains no patient health information (PHI), this data is not purged from Ocean over time. This means that if you were to receive a referral for a patient today, their referral history can still be viewed ten years from now.

If a previous referral is still in Ocean at the time that it's viewed, this referral can be selected from the "Referral History" window. This will open the referral, allowing you to view further details about this referral.

There are three methods to view a patient’s previous referral(s) (i.e. "Referral History"), as outlined below.
"Open File" Icon Action Menu Referral History Search
- When viewing referrals under the eRequests tab of the Ocean Portal, there may be an "Open File" icon displayed on the far right hand side of the referral.
- This is a quick flag to indicate that there was at least one previous referral for the patient at your site. Simply click this icon to open and view the patient's referral history.
- If you already have a specific patient's referral open, the referral history can be accessed from the Action menu at the top right corner of the referral.
- Simply open this Action menu and then select "Referral History" to see if there were any previous referrals at your site for that patient.
If there is no referral for a specific patient currently sitting in the eRequests tab of your Ocean Portal, you can still search for that specific patient's referral history.

This is useful if you have received a referral via fax and would like to see if there are records of any previous referrals for this patient in Ocean, for example.
- To search for a patient's referral history, go into the eRequests tab of the Ocean Portal. From the Actions menu at the bottom left, select "Referral History".
- Enter the patient’s birth date and health card number, then select "Search".
- If no previous referrals are found, you will see a pop-up window, informing you as such.
- Otherwise, the "Referral History" window will appear.
Creating Inbound Requests

If your Ocean site receives referrals by phone or fax, you can convert these into Ocean eReferrals by creating an inbound Website form requests.

If your Ocean site receives referrals by phone or fax, you can convert these into Ocean eReferrals by creating an Inbound Website Form Request by following the steps outlined below.
- Log in to the Ocean Portal and navigate to the eRequests tab.
- Expand the "Actions" menu at the bottom left and select "New Inbound Referral".
- Select the source for the new referral.
- If there are multiple listings tied to your site, you will be prompted to select which listing the referral was directed to.
- Complete the patient information and all relevant fields on the referral form, including the date the referral was sent if it differs from the current date.
- Enter the referrer's information or click "Import..." to auto-populate the information from the referrer's directory listing.
- To import the referrer, type their name into the text box and choose their listing from the list of results.
  
  Note: If any information requires updating, update these fields in the "Referrer's Information" pane of the eReferral and it will be saved for next time.
- When all of the information for the referral has been entered, click the "eRefer" button in the bottom right corner of the window.
- The eReferral will now appear in the "New" inbox in the eRequests tab of your Ocean Portal. These inbound eReferrals can be managed in the same way as any other Ocean eReferral, with the exception that NO referral notifications will be sent to the referrer through Ocean.
Managing eReferral Wait Times

Learn how Ocean automatically calculates wait times for health services and how you can specify your own instead.

Ocean automatically calculates wait times on a nightly basis for each health service offering in your listings. Ocean uses eligible eReferrals sent over the past six months for the calculations.

Note: Some eReferrals are excluded from wait times if there are notes entered in the referral that indicate the appointment was delayed by patient availability. If there are any dates affecting readiness to consult and treat entered, those periods will be removed from the wait times as well.

To view the wait times for your directory listing(s), navigate to that listing in the Ocean Portal and complete the steps below.
Note: You can also view individual wait times using your eReferral Analytics.
Backing Up Your eReferrals

It's a good idea to keep a backup of all your Ocean eReferrals, as they are purged from the Ocean Portal over time.

As Ocean eReferrals are purged from the Ocean Portal over time, it is recommended that you keep a backup of the referrals received at your site. This can be done on a weekly basis, by following the steps below:
- Log in to the Ocean Portal and navigate to the eReferrals View.
- Expand the Actions menu at the bottom left. Then select "Export".
- Select your start and end date for your export. You can download data within a specific date range, based on the referral's modification date. Or, you can pull all data since you started receiving referrals by leaving both dates blank.
- Select “Export unexported referrals only” if you would only like to export referrals that have not been previously backed up. If you want to export all referrals in the Ocean Portal, uncheck this box.
- Select “Mark referrals exported” to mark the referrals as backed up, once you've completed the export. This will add a green checkbox icon beside the referral in the Ocean portal, once the export is completed.
- Note: If this box is left unchecked, the next time the export is done, the previously exported referrals will be pulled once again.
- Finally, click "Export". This will export your data in a .csv file that can be opened using Microsoft Excel.
Final Comments:

The referral export will contain patient health information and should be stored somewhere securely at your site.

Referral information pulled in the export includes; referral reference, patient name, description, status, referral date, booked date (if present), referring site, recipient site, clinician, professional ID, patient phone number, patient email, internal comments, referrer comments, and the entire contents of the referral note.

The API also provides access to this referral information. For more details, please refer to: "Ocean Open API".
Accessing eReferral Analytics

Ocean sites receiving eReferrals can access analytics data about eReferrals received over time by downloading a report from the Admin Settings page in the Ocean Portal.

Since referral analytics do NOT contain any patient health information, they are always maintained within Ocean, which means that analytics data can be accessed and downloaded at any time.

Ocean sites receiving eReferrals can access their Referral Analytic Data at any time, from the Ocean Portal under the Admin Settings page. Note that referral analytics do not contain any patient health information and are maintained within Ocean. So even though the Ocean eReferral itself will be purged from Ocean over time, you will always be able to access the referral analytic.
To access these analytics, follow the steps outlined below:
- Log in to the Ocean Portal and navigate to the Admin tab.
- Select the "Reports" section from the Admin Settings page.
- Under the "Export Referral Analytic Data" section, select the date range for referrals. You can either download data within a specific date range, view all data since you started receiving referrals to a specific date (select just an end date), all data from a specific date onwards (select just a start date), or all data since you started receiving referrals (leave both dates blank).
- Then select the desired file type. "All" will pull all referrals received by your site, including master, test, and deleted referrals. A "Clean" file type will remove these referrals, giving you a clean data set to work with.
- Finally, select the "Export" button. This will export your data in a .csv file that can be opened using Microsoft Excel. For more information about each analytic field, please refer to: "Supporting Analytics in eReferral eForms".
Note: Referral analytics can also be accessed through our Ocean API. For more details, please refer to: "Ocean Open API".
Batch Printing Received eReferrals

If your Ocean site receives referrals and would like to print or download a PDF copy to maintain with your patient records, this can be done using Ocean's batch print function.

If your Ocean site receives referrals that are not imported directly into an EMR, you can download or print pdf copies of them using the referrals' Action Menu. In some workflows, it may be easier to batch print multiple referrals within a list at once. This can be done using Ocean's batch print function, and the following steps:
- Log in to the portal and navigate to the eRequests tab.
- Choose the folder of referrals you would like to print. If the referral status is not an element of the desired list of referrals to print, go to the All Received tab.
- Apply any filters you would like to the list. This includes filtering by booking date, listing, health service offering, referring provider etc.
Note: Ocean will print all of the matching referrals in the current folder, not just the number of referrals displayed.
Note: Ocean can only print a maximum of 100 referrals at one time.
- If you have more than 100 referrals listed, you'll be prompted with the following Error window. Click OK. Refine your filters as outlined in step C, to generate a list of under 100 referrals, and try again.
- After selecting Print, a new window with a single generated PDF of all the referrals listed will appear. Choose the print button to print the full PDF.

Importing eReferral Requests into Your EMR

Learn how to import notes from eReferral requisition forms from the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal into the patient's chart in your EMR.

After you've accepted an eReferral, an "Import" window will appear.

If you are a PS Suite user NOT on Cloud Connect, you will need to navigate into the patient's EMR chart. If the patient does not yet exist in the EMR, you will need to create a stub chart. Then, use the "Import" link on the Ocean toolbar in your EMR, which will allow you to import a patient's eReferral using the reference number provided.
The patient demographic fields will automatically update in the patient's chart when you import their eReferral data.

Note: If you're a PSS user, on Cloud Connect, Ocean will look for a patient with a matching health card number and automatically import the referral into their chart.

If you use Oscar you will need to navigate into the patient's EMR chart. If the patient does not yet exist in the EMR, you will need to create a stub chart. Then, use the "Import" link on the Ocean toolbar in the patient's Encounter Chart, and enter in the reference code provided on the Import window.
Confirm the patient you are importing from the eReferral, matches the patient information of the chart you are importing the referral into. The patient demographic fields will automatically update in the patient's chart when you import their eReferral data.

If you are using Accuro and are accepting eReferrals from new patients (that don't have a record in your Accuro EMR yet), you will want to ensure that your site is set up to allow Ocean to create patients in your EMR. You can enable this by going to the Admin Settings page in the Ocean Portal, clicking "Site Features", checking off the "Allow accepted eRequests/eReferrals to create patients in your EMR" checkbox, and then saving your changes.
Then, when you accept a new eReferral, the referral note should either automatically be uploaded into the patient (with matching health number)'s chart in Accuro. If a chart with a matching health number is not found, a chart will be created in Accuro with the notes uploaded into that newly-created chart.

If you use non-integrated EMR, you can download the submission and upload it into your EMR as a PDF.

Managing Incoming eReferrals

Learn about where eReferrals appear and move within the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal, as well as how incoming eReferrals can be managed.

You can view and manage all of your received eReferrals from the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal.

Simply click on the patient to manage its next steps, including triaging the referral, accepting the referral, booking an appointment for the referral, sending a message to the referrer, etc.

Once you receive a new eReferral or if there is a status change in any of your eReferrals, your clinic's indicated referral notification email address will be sent a notification email. Please refer to the "eReferral Notification Email Rules" article to learn more about who, when, and why Ocean eReferral notification are sent.
The referred patient will also be sent email updates about their eReferral, provided that an email address was included in the original referral and the referral indicates that patient consented to be contacted via email.

All incoming eReferrals will appear in the eReferrals View in the Ocean Portal.
Note: Please review "What do the Different eReferral Inboxes Mean?" to learn more about the different inboxes that are used to manage eReferrals.

There are several features available to help isolate specific referral(s). The "Filter" search box allows you to search by patient surname, referring clinician name, or provider name. The listing dropdown menu allows you to choose referrals for a specific listing or health service offering within that listing. You may also sort referrals by the "Description", "Date Sent", "Source", "Site", "Provider", "Protocol", "Priority", or "Noted" columns. Click the column description once to sort the referrals in ascending values, and click it again to sort them in descending values.

Click anywhere on the line of your selected referral to open it.
Note: To learn more about the various icons and buttons you will see when managing incoming eReferrals, please review "What do the Icons and Buttons in eReferrals Mean?"

If the patient demographic information requires correction, click the icon beside their name to update these fields. Use the "Accept" or "Decline" buttons to accept or decline the referral.
Note: This will move the referral to your Pending Booking or Declined inbox depending on which option is selected.

If the referral requires review by another user at your site, use this button to select the individual and notify them.
Note: This action will move the eReferral to your Needs Review inbox.

Use the scheduling pane to enter the patient's appointment information and any relevant booking notes or attachments. If the appointment has already been confirmed with the patient, select the Confirmed checkbox.
Note: Any updates to the Scheduling pane will trigger an email notification to the patient, referrer, and any other stakeholders on the referral. The notification will include the appointment dates, times, and medium information, as well as any additional comments or attachments that are included. If the appointment has not been confirmed, the patient will have the option of confirming the appointment electronically.

If an appointment can not be scheduled right away, you can communicate an estimated wait time to the referring provider by selecting it from the "Anticipated Time to Appointment" drop down menu in the scheduling pane. This action will update the status of the referral for the referring provider but will not trigger an email notification unless booking comments are added.

To update wait times for multiple referrals at once, select "Update Wait Times" from the "Actions" menu in the eReferrals View. Enter the health service you would like to update along with the updated wait times. You may optionally specify the priority or dates to limit the update to apply only to specific referrals.

Use this action menu to access additional functions available to you, such as printing, downloading, or exporting the referral. For details on each Action Menu item, please review "What do the different eReferral Action Menu Items mean?"

Add a note to the referral using free text or one of the options from the drop-down menu here. You may also triage the referral using the "Review..." option.

You may exchange information securely with the referrer using the Messaging pane of the referral. Enter any text, canned responses, or attachments you would like to send and then press the "Send" button. The recipient will then be notified of your message by email and may log in to the Ocean portal to view it securely.

Adding Appointment Details to eReferrals

Learn how to add appointment details to eReferrals in order to update patients and referring providers with appointment dates, times, mediums, and other scheduling details.

Appointment information can be added, edited, or removed by referral recipients at any point in an eReferral's lifecycle.

Most commonly though, this is done from the Pending Booking folder of the eReferrals view.

From the referral list, users can click to open the referral that requires updating and navigate to the Scheduling pane. Here, details such as appointment date and time can be added and saved on the referral. This information can also be pulled in directly from the EMR.

Updates to the Scheduling pane will result in automatic email notifications being sent to the patient (if the patient provided email consent), the referring provider, and any other stakeholders on the referral (such as a Central Intake site).
Examples of Patient Booking Notification emails can be found here.

Steps for updating the Scheduling pane are outlined below:

If you are a PS Suite user you can continue to book appointments for patients in the PSS scheduling system. Once the appointment has been added, you can navigate to the patient chart and launch the Ocean eReferral Appointment Notification Custom Form to pull the appointment details onto the eReferral. Details on this workflow can be found here.

If you use Oscar you can add the appointment to the Oscar scheduler, but will need to manually update the eReferral. This can be done by opening the patient's Encounter Chart, selecting the active eReferrals link on the Ocean Toolbar to launch into the Patient's Dashboard. Open the matching referral and manually add in the appointment date and time.

If you use Oscar Pro you can add the appointment to the Oscar scheduler. Then, select the Ocean shortcut on the appointment to open the Ocean eForm. Choose Update Referral to launch into the Patient Dashboard and update the referral with the appointment date and time pulled in from the EMR. Details on this workflow can be found here.

If you are using Accuro you can add the appointment to the Accuro scheduler. Then, select the Send Appointment Notification CDS link or button to launch into the Patient Dashboard. Select the appropriate referral to update with the appointment date and time pulled in from the EMR. Details on this workflow can be found here.

If you use a non-integrated EMR, you can open the eReferral directly in the eReferrals view of the Ocean Portal, navigate to the Scheduling pane, and add the appointment date and time details there.

In the Scheduling pane of the eReferral, choose the appropriate Appointment Label. These labels can be configured on your directory listings, as outlined in Step 4 of this set up guide.

Note: If the appointment date and time was pulled in directly from the EMR in Step A, move to Step E. Otherwise, continue on to Step C.

If adding the appointment manually, click into the appointment Date field to pop up the calendar date picker. Select a date to populate the field.

If adding an appointment time manually, click into the Time field and make a selection from the time dropdown.

Note: You can start to type in a time to shorten the list of options to choose from. This time dropdown is also configurable for your site, and can be edited by following this set up step.

Click the Medium dropdown and select how the appointment will occur. This dropdown will default to In Person, at the address of the Directory Listing that the referral belongs to.

Note: If the "In Person (Alternate Location Specified in Booking Comments)" is selected, you will be prompted to add details to the booking comments before saving the referral.

If confirming the date and time with the patient at the time of booking the appointment, check off the Confirmed box. This will move the referral to the Booked Confirmed folder. If leaving it to the patient or referring provider to confirm the appointment, leave the Confirmed box unchecked, and the referral will move to the Booked Unconfirmed folder in the portal, at the time of saving.

Note: The bottom of the Scheduling pane will indicate whether the patient will receive the notification by email, or if they need to be notified separately.

Note: If the patient or stakeholder on the referral confirms the appointment, the user and time of the confirmation will be automatically stamped in the scheduling pane. If Accuro or Oscar Pro were used to update the appointments on the eReferral, the confirmation update will also automatically update the EMR's scheduled appointment state to confirmed.

To add another appointment to the Scheduling pane, click the "+" icon on the right hand side and repeat the steps outlined above. To cancel or remove an appointment from the eReferral, select the "-" icon to the right of the appointment. See this support article for further details.

If there is additional information regarding the appointment(s) you would like to share with the patient and stakeholders on the eReferral, you can type in Booking Comments. Alternatively, use the canned booking comments feature to add in a set of standard information. Canned booking comments can be setup by following this guide.

Booking Attachments can be added by clicking the paperclip icon in the Scheduling pane. These will be included in the patient booking email notifications.

Select Save or Save and Close to save your booking changes and trigger the email notifications to the referrer and patient.

Viewing a Patient's Referral History

If you ever need to inquire about any Ocean eReferral(s) that have been received and processed for a certain patient in the past, you can easily look this up in the patient's eReferral history in Ocean.

For sites receiving eReferrals, it may be valuable to know if the patient has been referred to your site before, and some details of the previous referral(s). Fortunately, you can view a patient's "Referral History" directly from the eReferrals View of the Ocean Portal.

Note: A health number and birth date must be included in the referral, in order for Ocean to identify the patient's referral history. This is because these two values are used to generate a unique patient identifier that is stored in Ocean with the referral.

The "Referral History" captures the following referral information: Description, Status, Referring Site, Booked Date, Referral Date, Referrer, Provider, Protocol, and Priority.

Similar to referral analytics, because this referral history contains no patient health information (PHI), this data is not purged from Ocean over time. This means that if you were to receive a referral for a patient today, their referral history can still be viewed ten years from now.

If a previous referral is still in Ocean at the time that it's viewed, this referral can be selected from the "Referral History" window. This will open the referral, allowing you to view further details about this referral.

There are three methods to view a patient’s previous referral(s) (i.e. "Referral History"), as outlined below.

When viewing referrals under the eRequests tab of the Ocean Portal, there may be an "Open File" icon displayed on the far right hand side of the referral.

This is a quick flag to indicate that there was at least one previous referral for the patient at your site. Simply click this icon to open and view the patient's referral history.

If you already have a specific patient's referral open, the referral history can be accessed from the Action menu at the top right corner of the referral.

Simply open this Action menu and then select "Referral History" to see if there were any previous referrals at your site for that patient.

If there is no referral for a specific patient currently sitting in the eRequests tab of your Ocean Portal, you can still search for that specific patient's referral history.

This is useful if you have received a referral via fax and would like to see if there are records of any previous referrals for this patient in Ocean, for example.

To search for a patient's referral history, go into the eRequests tab of the Ocean Portal. From the Actions menu at the bottom left, select "Referral History".

Enter the patient’s birth date and health card number, then select "Search".

If no previous referrals are found, you will see a pop-up window, informing you as such.

Otherwise, the "Referral History" window will appear.

Creating Inbound Requests

If your Ocean site receives referrals by phone or fax, you can convert these into Ocean eReferrals by creating an inbound Website form requests.

If your Ocean site receives referrals by phone or fax, you can convert these into Ocean eReferrals by creating an Inbound Website Form Request by following the steps outlined below.

Log in to the Ocean Portal and navigate to the eRequests tab.
Expand the "Actions" menu at the bottom left and select "New Inbound Referral".

Select the source for the new referral.

If there are multiple listings tied to your site, you will be prompted to select which listing the referral was directed to.

Complete the patient information and all relevant fields on the referral form, including the date the referral was sent if it differs from the current date.

Enter the referrer's information or click "Import..." to auto-populate the information from the referrer's directory listing.

To import the referrer, type their name into the text box and choose their listing from the list of results.

Note: If any information requires updating, update these fields in the "Referrer's Information" pane of the eReferral and it will be saved for next time.

When all of the information for the referral has been entered, click the "eRefer" button in the bottom right corner of the window.

The eReferral will now appear in the "New" inbox in the eRequests tab of your Ocean Portal. These inbound eReferrals can be managed in the same way as any other Ocean eReferral, with the exception that NO referral notifications will be sent to the referrer through Ocean.

Managing eReferral Wait Times

Learn how Ocean automatically calculates wait times for health services and how you can specify your own instead.

Ocean automatically calculates wait times on a nightly basis for each health service offering in your listings. Ocean uses eligible eReferrals sent over the past six months for the calculations.

Note: Some eReferrals are excluded from wait times if there are notes entered in the referral that indicate the appointment was delayed by patient availability. If there are any dates affecting readiness to consult and treat entered, those periods will be removed from the wait times as well.

To view the wait times for your directory listing(s), navigate to that listing in the Ocean Portal and complete the steps below.

Select the directory listing and health service offer that you would like to view the wait times for.

In the offer details, click the wait time next to Wait Time 1 or Wait Time 2 depending on which wait time you would like to view.

From this window, you can view Ocean's calculated wait times and the details about how they were calculated.

If you would like to specify a different wait time than the one that was calculated automatically, use the drop down menu beside Claimed Wait Time to choose the appropriate option.

The Ocean Healthmap will display wait times in a new feature coming soon!

Note: You can also view individual wait times using your eReferral Analytics.

Backing Up Your eReferrals

It's a good idea to keep a backup of all your Ocean eReferrals, as they are purged from the Ocean Portal over time.

As Ocean eReferrals are purged from the Ocean Portal over time, it is recommended that you keep a backup of the referrals received at your site. This can be done on a weekly basis, by following the steps below:

Expand the Actions menu at the bottom left. Then select "Export".

Select your start and end date for your export. You can download data within a specific date range, based on the referral's modification date. Or, you can pull all data since you started receiving referrals by leaving both dates blank.
Select “Export unexported referrals only” if you would only like to export referrals that have not been previously backed up. If you want to export all referrals in the Ocean Portal, uncheck this box.

Select “Mark referrals exported” to mark the referrals as backed up, once you've completed the export. This will add a green checkbox icon beside the referral in the Ocean portal, once the export is completed.
Note: If this box is left unchecked, the next time the export is done, the previously exported referrals will be pulled once again.
Finally, click "Export". This will export your data in a .csv file that can be opened using Microsoft Excel.

Final Comments:

The referral export will contain patient health information and should be stored somewhere securely at your site.

Referral information pulled in the export includes; referral reference, patient name, description, status, referral date, booked date (if present), referring site, recipient site, clinician, professional ID, patient phone number, patient email, internal comments, referrer comments, and the entire contents of the referral note.

The API also provides access to this referral information. For more details, please refer to: "Ocean Open API".

Accessing eReferral Analytics

Ocean sites receiving eReferrals can access analytics data about eReferrals received over time by downloading a report from the Admin Settings page in the Ocean Portal.

Since referral analytics do NOT contain any patient health information, they are always maintained within Ocean, which means that analytics data can be accessed and downloaded at any time.

Ocean sites receiving eReferrals can access their Referral Analytic Data at any time, from the Ocean Portal under the Admin Settings page. Note that referral analytics do not contain any patient health information and are maintained within Ocean. So even though the Ocean eReferral itself will be purged from Ocean over time, you will always be able to access the referral analytic.

To access these analytics, follow the steps outlined below:

Log in to the Ocean Portal and navigate to the Admin tab.
Select the "Reports" section from the Admin Settings page.
Under the "Export Referral Analytic Data" section, select the date range for referrals. You can either download data within a specific date range, view all data since you started receiving referrals to a specific date (select just an end date), all data from a specific date onwards (select just a start date), or all data since you started receiving referrals (leave both dates blank).
Then select the desired file type. "All" will pull all referrals received by your site, including master, test, and deleted referrals. A "Clean" file type will remove these referrals, giving you a clean data set to work with.
Finally, select the "Export" button. This will export your data in a .csv file that can be opened using Microsoft Excel. For more information about each analytic field, please refer to: "Supporting Analytics in eReferral eForms".

Note: Referral analytics can also be accessed through our Ocean API. For more details, please refer to: "Ocean Open API".

Batch Printing Received eReferrals

If your Ocean site receives referrals and would like to print or download a PDF copy to maintain with your patient records, this can be done using Ocean's batch print function.

If your Ocean site receives referrals that are not imported directly into an EMR, you can download or print pdf copies of them using the referrals' Action Menu. In some workflows, it may be easier to batch print multiple referrals within a list at once. This can be done using Ocean's batch print function, and the following steps:

Log in to the portal and navigate to the eRequests tab.
Choose the folder of referrals you would like to print. If the referral status is not an element of the desired list of referrals to print, go to the All Received tab.

Apply any filters you would like to the list. This includes filtering by booking date, listing, health service offering, referring provider etc.

Click the Print Referrals button at the top of the referral list.

Note: Ocean will print all of the matching referrals in the current folder, not just the number of referrals displayed.

Confirm the number of referrals you would like to print is correct, and choose the Print button.

Note: Ocean can only print a maximum of 100 referrals at one time.

If you have more than 100 referrals listed, you'll be prompted with the following Error window. Click OK. Refine your filters as outlined in step C, to generate a list of under 100 referrals, and try again.

After selecting Print, a new window with a single generated PDF of all the referrals listed will appear. Choose the print button to print the full PDF.