1. Initiate Your Ocean eReferral

    You can access the Ocean eReferral Network from the link in your EMR (for integrated EMRs) or directly from the Ocean Healthmap to initiate your referral.

    With an Ocean account, you can initiate an Ocean eReferral at any time directly from the Ocean Healthmap. If you are using an EMR which is integrated with Ocean, you can also initiate an eReferral at any time by following the steps below.

    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated

    Video coming soon!

    Initiate your eReferral (without an attachment)

    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
    • Click the "Refer" button on the Ocean toolbar in the patient record.

    Initiate your eReferral (with an attachment)

    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
    • The EMR-specific actions above will take you directly to the Ocean Healthmap.
    • Note: Log in to the Ocean Healthmap with your Ocean user credentials if your user name does not appear in the top right so that your provider details are autopopulated in the eReferral.
  2. Select an eReferral Recipient

    Search for your desired referral recipient to create your eReferral.

    • Browse or search the Ocean Healthmap for a Directory Listing to send your eReferral to.

      Note: A green arrow icon indicates if a Directory Listing is currently accepting eReferrals.

    • The search bar at the top of the page allows you to type in a key term to search for, or select related health services in the geographic region that your map is focused on.
    • You can also browse the health service categories to categorically search for health services in the geographic region that your map is focused on.
    • The 'Advanced Search and Filtering' option allows you to define more specific criteria for your search results.
    • Your search results can also be sorted by distance from the patient's home address, or by shortest wait time (when searching for a specific health service).
    • Once you determine your desired recipient, select the Directory Listing and click 'Send eReferral'.

    Test Mode

    • If you are looking to send a test eReferral, use the test mode toggle in the bottom left corner of the screen to enable/disable test mode.
    • When test mode is enabled, the healthmap will only show recipient Directory Listings that also have test mode enabled.
  3. Send Your eReferral

    Complete the eReferral form and send your referral off to the referral recipient.

    • Complete the eReferral form, as required. If you initiated the referral from an integrated EMR, patient contact information and other required details will be automatically pre-populated. Complete the remaining fields as required.
    • Include any relevant attachments by pressing the 'Add Attachments' button and selecting them from your computer.

      Note: If you are a Med Access user and using the Ocean-MA Extension you will be automatically prompted to include any queued attachments as soon as the referral form is opened.

      If you are a PS Suite, Accuro, or OSCAR Pro user and you initiated your eReferral with an attachment, it will be automatically included below the 'Add Attachments' button.

    • If you are sending an eReferral as a delegate, you will need to select the appropriate provider that you are referring on behalf of (from the dropdown menu at the top of the "Referrer Information" panel).
    • Click the "Send Referral" button to send your eReferral.

      Note: If the Directory Listing you are sending to is accepting referrals under a Regional Authority (such as a provincial eReferral initiative), you must accept the Regional Authority's Terms of Use located beside the “Send Referral” button the first time you send eReferral.

    • Once sent, you will see a confirmation window with the option to print a copy of the referral for the patient.
    • The eReferral will then be documented in the patient's chart.
    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Other EMR
    • The referral note and Ocean eReferral form are automatically downloaded into the patient chart. An internal PS message can also be triggered to the PS user/group of your choice, so they can follow up on the referral, in the specified number of days.
  4. View & Track Your eReferral

    You will receive email notifications about the status of your referral(s).

    From there, you can view and track the status of your referral from within your EMR and/or the eReferrals & eConsults View of the Ocean Portal.

    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated

    Video coming soon!

    View your eReferral.

    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
    • After sending an eReferral from PSS, the referral note summary and Ocean eReferral form are automatically downloaded into the patient chart on the date the referral was sent. You can access and view the eReferral by selecting the "Open" lightbulb directly from the Ocean eReferral form. 
    • The Ocean Toolbar will also update with a link displaying the number of outstanding (active) eReferrals associated with that patient in Ocean.
    • Clicking this link, OR the "View in Ocean" link, will open the patient's Ocean dashboard where you can find a table of the active sent eReferrals for the patient. You can select a specific referral from the table to open it and view further details, or make updates to it.

    Check the status of your eReferral.

    PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
    • When the status of the eReferral changes, the Ocean eReferral form in the patient chart will automatically be updated. You can access and review the status of that individual referral at any time from the patient chart. Click "Open" for more details.
    • To review the statuses of all active referrals for that patient, select the "View in Ocean" or "# outstanding" links on the Ocean Toolbar. In the Active Referrals Sent table, the corresponding status of each referral can be viewed in the Status column. Click anywhere on an individual referral line to open it for more details.

    If you've linked your referral to your own Ocean account, you will also automatically receive email updates when the status of your eReferral changes (i.e. if it's booked, cancelled, or changed). More details about these email updates can be found in the article "Where do eConsult and/or eReferral notification emails get sent to?".

  5. Manage All Your eReferrals in the Ocean Portal

    Use the Ocean Portal to manage all of your sent eReferrals.

    After your eReferral has been sent, it can be viewed and managed from the eConsults & eReferrals area of the Ocean Portal. The portal allows you to see all of your referrals in one place, clearly organized into folders according to their current status.

    This article walks through the different features and options available in the portal, from searching for referrals to understanding the triggers that update a referral's status.

    Login to the Ocean Portal

    • Log in to the Ocean Portal with your Ocean username and password.
    • Open the Menu in the top left corner, and select 'eReferrals & eConsults'.

    Configure your Sent and Received Folders

    • The eReferral & eConsult View in the Ocean Portal has two main folder groupings: 'Received' and 'Sent'.
    • Within these folder groupings, you can access all of your referrals within their current status folder.
    • If you are only sending eReferrals it is recommended that you collapse the 'Received' folder grouping by clicking on it.

    Status Folders

    Status Folders categorize your referrals based on their current status. As a referral's status changes throughout its lifecycle, it will be automatically moved to the appropriate folder.

    • For example, a referral in the 'Pending Booking' folder will automatically move to the 'Booked Unconfirmed' folder when the referral recipient books an appointment for the patient and updates that information in the referral.
    • Once the appointment date and time are confirmed, the referral will then be automatically moved to the 'Booked Confirmed' folder for both parties.

    This functionality ensures that the status of the referral is always up to date throughout its lifecycle for all relevant parties.

    Searching and Filtering

    Search Bar

    To quickly locate a specific or group of referrals, you can take advantage of the search bar in the top left corner.

    • Selecting 'Patient with surname' filters all your referrals to only include patients with the matching surname.
    • Selecting 'Referring clinician with the name containing' filters all your referrals to only include referrals sent by a specific clinician.
    • Selecting 'Provider with name containing' filters all your referrals to only include referrals sent to the Directory Listing with the chosen search term included in it's name.

    Referring Clinician and Service Filtering

    • All folders within the 'Sent' folder grouping can be filtered based on the 'Referring Clinician' and/or the referred 'Service'.

    Appointment Date Filtering

    • The 'Booked Unconfirmed' and 'Booked Confirmed' status folders can also be filtered to show referrals with appointments within a certain time frame.
    • The 'Appt Date - Start' and 'Appt Date - End' fields can be used to view only referrals with an appointment booked in the specified date range.

    Column Filtering

    • Certain columns within each status folder can be used to order the matching referrals in ascending or descending order.
    • Simply click on the column header to sort the referrals based on that column.

Initiate Your Ocean eReferral

You can access the Ocean eReferral Network from the link in your EMR (for integrated EMRs) or directly from the Ocean Healthmap to initiate your referral.

With an Ocean account, you can initiate an Ocean eReferral at any time directly from the Ocean Healthmap. If you are using an EMR which is integrated with Ocean, you can also initiate an eReferral at any time by following the steps below.

PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated

Video coming soon!

Initiate your eReferral (without an attachment)

PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
  • Click the "Refer" button on the Ocean toolbar in the patient record.

Initiate your eReferral (with an attachment)

PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
  • The EMR-specific actions above will take you directly to the Ocean Healthmap.
  • Note: Log in to the Ocean Healthmap with your Ocean user credentials if your user name does not appear in the top right so that your provider details are autopopulated in the eReferral.

Select an eReferral Recipient

Search for your desired referral recipient to create your eReferral.

  • Browse or search the Ocean Healthmap for a Directory Listing to send your eReferral to.

    Note: A green arrow icon indicates if a Directory Listing is currently accepting eReferrals.

  • The search bar at the top of the page allows you to type in a key term to search for, or select related health services in the geographic region that your map is focused on.
  • You can also browse the health service categories to categorically search for health services in the geographic region that your map is focused on.
  • The 'Advanced Search and Filtering' option allows you to define more specific criteria for your search results.
  • Your search results can also be sorted by distance from the patient's home address, or by shortest wait time (when searching for a specific health service).
  • Once you determine your desired recipient, select the Directory Listing and click 'Send eReferral'.

Test Mode

  • If you are looking to send a test eReferral, use the test mode toggle in the bottom left corner of the screen to enable/disable test mode.
  • When test mode is enabled, the healthmap will only show recipient Directory Listings that also have test mode enabled.

Send Your eReferral

Complete the eReferral form and send your referral off to the referral recipient.

  • Complete the eReferral form, as required. If you initiated the referral from an integrated EMR, patient contact information and other required details will be automatically pre-populated. Complete the remaining fields as required.
  • Include any relevant attachments by pressing the 'Add Attachments' button and selecting them from your computer.

    Note: If you are a Med Access user and using the Ocean-MA Extension you will be automatically prompted to include any queued attachments as soon as the referral form is opened.

    If you are a PS Suite, Accuro, or OSCAR Pro user and you initiated your eReferral with an attachment, it will be automatically included below the 'Add Attachments' button.

  • If you are sending an eReferral as a delegate, you will need to select the appropriate provider that you are referring on behalf of (from the dropdown menu at the top of the "Referrer Information" panel).
  • Click the "Send Referral" button to send your eReferral.

    Note: If the Directory Listing you are sending to is accepting referrals under a Regional Authority (such as a provincial eReferral initiative), you must accept the Regional Authority's Terms of Use located beside the “Send Referral” button the first time you send eReferral.

  • Once sent, you will see a confirmation window with the option to print a copy of the referral for the patient.
  • The eReferral will then be documented in the patient's chart.
PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Other EMR
  • The referral note and Ocean eReferral form are automatically downloaded into the patient chart. An internal PS message can also be triggered to the PS user/group of your choice, so they can follow up on the referral, in the specified number of days.

View & Track Your eReferral

You will receive email notifications about the status of your referral(s).

From there, you can view and track the status of your referral from within your EMR and/or the eReferrals & eConsults View of the Ocean Portal.

PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated

Video coming soon!

View your eReferral.

PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
  • After sending an eReferral from PSS, the referral note summary and Ocean eReferral form are automatically downloaded into the patient chart on the date the referral was sent. You can access and view the eReferral by selecting the "Open" lightbulb directly from the Ocean eReferral form. 
  • The Ocean Toolbar will also update with a link displaying the number of outstanding (active) eReferrals associated with that patient in Ocean.
  • Clicking this link, OR the "View in Ocean" link, will open the patient's Ocean dashboard where you can find a table of the active sent eReferrals for the patient. You can select a specific referral from the table to open it and view further details, or make updates to it.

Check the status of your eReferral.

PS Suite Med Access Accuro OSCAR Pro OSCAR Non-Integrated
  • When the status of the eReferral changes, the Ocean eReferral form in the patient chart will automatically be updated. You can access and review the status of that individual referral at any time from the patient chart. Click "Open" for more details.
  • To review the statuses of all active referrals for that patient, select the "View in Ocean" or "# outstanding" links on the Ocean Toolbar. In the Active Referrals Sent table, the corresponding status of each referral can be viewed in the Status column. Click anywhere on an individual referral line to open it for more details.

If you've linked your referral to your own Ocean account, you will also automatically receive email updates when the status of your eReferral changes (i.e. if it's booked, cancelled, or changed). More details about these email updates can be found in the article "Where do eConsult and/or eReferral notification emails get sent to?".


Manage All Your eReferrals in the Ocean Portal

Use the Ocean Portal to manage all of your sent eReferrals.

After your eReferral has been sent, it can be viewed and managed from the eConsults & eReferrals area of the Ocean Portal. The portal allows you to see all of your referrals in one place, clearly organized into folders according to their current status.

This article walks through the different features and options available in the portal, from searching for referrals to understanding the triggers that update a referral's status.

Login to the Ocean Portal

  • Log in to the Ocean Portal with your Ocean username and password.
  • Open the Menu in the top left corner, and select 'eReferrals & eConsults'.

Configure your Sent and Received Folders

  • The eReferral & eConsult View in the Ocean Portal has two main folder groupings: 'Received' and 'Sent'.
  • Within these folder groupings, you can access all of your referrals within their current status folder.
  • If you are only sending eReferrals it is recommended that you collapse the 'Received' folder grouping by clicking on it.

Status Folders

Status Folders categorize your referrals based on their current status. As a referral's status changes throughout its lifecycle, it will be automatically moved to the appropriate folder.

  • For example, a referral in the 'Pending Booking' folder will automatically move to the 'Booked Unconfirmed' folder when the referral recipient books an appointment for the patient and updates that information in the referral.
  • Once the appointment date and time are confirmed, the referral will then be automatically moved to the 'Booked Confirmed' folder for both parties.

This functionality ensures that the status of the referral is always up to date throughout its lifecycle for all relevant parties.

Searching and Filtering

Search Bar

To quickly locate a specific or group of referrals, you can take advantage of the search bar in the top left corner.

  • Selecting 'Patient with surname' filters all your referrals to only include patients with the matching surname.
  • Selecting 'Referring clinician with the name containing' filters all your referrals to only include referrals sent by a specific clinician.
  • Selecting 'Provider with name containing' filters all your referrals to only include referrals sent to the Directory Listing with the chosen search term included in it's name.

Referring Clinician and Service Filtering

  • All folders within the 'Sent' folder grouping can be filtered based on the 'Referring Clinician' and/or the referred 'Service'.

Appointment Date Filtering

  • The 'Booked Unconfirmed' and 'Booked Confirmed' status folders can also be filtered to show referrals with appointments within a certain time frame.
  • The 'Appt Date - Start' and 'Appt Date - End' fields can be used to view only referrals with an appointment booked in the specified date range.

Column Filtering

  • Certain columns within each status folder can be used to order the matching referrals in ascending or descending order.
  • Simply click on the column header to sort the referrals based on that column.