How to Develop a Patient Referral Tracking System for a Medical Practice?

If a primary healthcare provider wants to refer his patient to a specialist for additional medical services then he puts in a recommendation for it. A patient needs a referral before getting medical care from any other physician. This whole recommendation process falls into the patient referral process.

A referral process involves obtaining patient information such as insurance details, and demographics; also scheduling appointments. This task can get cumbersome, so a patient referral tracking system manages the referral process.

A referral system improves communication between providers and patients, and maintains continuity of treatment. So, there’s a significant rise in the US patient referral management software market as well (16.3 percent CAGR between 2022 to 2030).

This article covers the importance of patient referral tracking system and how to go about develop one for a medical practice.

Importance of Patient Referral Tracking System

Why would patients and providers need a referral tracking system? Here are top six reasons:

1. Continuity of Care

Continuity of care is where the patient shifts from the primary healthcare provider to a specialist for a variety of reasons. It could be transition from a hospital to a rehabilitation center, or from a GP to a cardiologist.

The goal is to ensure continuum of care for patients, so there’s no gap in their treatment and they recover quickly. It also helps to maintain the flow of data between healthcare providers, allowing for timely interventions, follow-up care, and medications.

Patients no longer have to worry about ‘what’s next?’ in their treatment plan, it will be set out for them by their provider. This enhances patient experience and satisfaction because it eliminates stress. Plus, it also improves outcomes because patients receive timely medical interventions.

2. Improve Patient Outcomes

By maintaining a continuum of care, providers are ultimately improving patient outcomes. With a patient referral tracking system, primary care providers can coordinate with specialists by sharing vital patient data. So, the specialists get a comprehensive overview of the patient’s condition, based on which they can start further treatment process.

Additionally, the data gathered from the referral system can be analyzed with AI to find areas for improvement and prepare a personalized care routine.

3. Reduced Paperwork

Manual referral process takes significant time and human efforts. But, with referral management system, admin staff can reduce paperwork, save time, and streamline workflows. With just few clicks, the admin staff can send forms to patients. Plus, the system displays completed patient forms and sends alerts if some documents are missing or lacking certain data.

A centralized online process with visibility and accountability eliminates phone and fax follow-ups, thus eliminating unnecessary workload and paperwork.

4. Growth of Medical Practice

Patient referral tracking system allows providers to connect with maximum patients, ultimately resulting in the growth of their medical practice. Patients are more likely to trust a healthcare provider when someone they know has recommended them.

Also, patient referrals bolster a provider’s credibility and establishes people’s trust in the quality of care offered by them. This eventually results in the growth of medical practice.

5. Collaboration Between Providers

A robust patient referral tracking system augments collaboration and communication between healthcare providers. It keeps all the concerned parties informed about the patient’s health status. The system eliminates data silos and ensures an integrated approach to care.

Provider collaboration plays an important role for complex cases, where there’s a need for multiple specialists. So, healthcare organizations can utilize the network of providers to ensure that patients are referred to the right experts, thus improving outcomes.

How to Develop a Patient Referral Tracking System?

We will talk about the process of developing a patient referral tracking system for a medical practice.

1. Research and Planning

Research which features and functionalities will make a good patient referral software. Which design type will be attractive for the target audience. Also, research about the competitors who have or are developing a referral tracking software.

Plan out a budget for the entire development process, along with hidden costs. So, you can give an estimate to the client on how much to expect. Remember to plan for a scalable patient referral tracking system.

2. MVP Development

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is an initial form of the patient referral system. It helps the developers to understand whether a product will work or not, and what changes need to be incorporated within the product.

An MVP can be used to pitch to stakeholders for investment or to showcase how work will progress in the upcoming timeline.

3. Shortlisting Features

For custom patient referral tracking system, shortlist features that matter to the practices. For instance, some of the commonly used patient referral features are:

1. Appointment Scheduling: Helps to schedule patient appointments directly with the recommended medical practitioner.
2. Data Access and Exchange: The system ensures seamless data exchange between providers for further treatment plans. Providers can look up for insurance details, past medical history, and allergies before going ahead.
3. Reminders: The admin staff can sent reminders to patients for incomplete documentation, follow-ups, and upcoming appointments.
4. Integrations: The patient referral system can be integrated with latest technologies such as AI, remote monitoring, and wearables to track and maintain patient conditions at real-time.
5. E-Prescriptions: Specialists can generate e-prescriptions for patients, so they can get the medicines delivered directly at their doorstep.

4. Compliance Requirements

For every healthcare organization, privacy and security of ePHI holds vital importance. So, the development team must incorporate compliance while crafting the patient referral system.

HIPAA compliance is a mandatory regulation to incorporate while developing the system. Failure to adhere to these regulations can result in lawsuits.

5. Designing Stage

Fun part of developing a patient referral tracking system is the design stage, where the look and the feel of the software is decided. From colors and fonts to navigation, everything is included in the design phase. A design prototype is developed and tested to understand how things will go forward before jumping to the coding phase.

6. Coding

Coding is the main part of the development cycle. The healthcare software development team writes the application code. With features, functionalities, and designs already planned out, the coding is done in no time. React, JavaScript, and AWS are some of the popularly used tech stack for software development.

7. Test, Release, and Maintenance

Once coding is done and dusted, it is time for testing. QA experts test the software for bugs, and if there are any, the development team can immediately go ahead to remove them. Further, testing also allows the QA team to check for software scalability, performance, and usability before the release.

Once all the checks are underway, the patient referral tracking system is released in the market or handed over to the client. One other task for the development team is system maintenance post its release. The software is regularly updated to keep the bugs away and to scale further.

If you’re looking to develop a patient referral tracking system for your organization then connect with Arkenea, a healthcare software development company. We offer top-notch products that match industry standards and fulfill all your requirements. Hop on to a consultation call to know more.