This information, based on patient surveys, staff debriefings, and benchmark data from our own and other institutions, suggested eight areas for specific improvement. As we reorganized, we prepared an ideal flowchart for the referral process that included all elements necessary to support the consultation referral, patient registration, payer verification, outside record retrieval, and surgical coordination. This information would then be distributed to the Medical Center, the referral management database, and the UWP practice plan for subsequent accounting and billing purposes. Finally, necessary data was then used to produce all integral reports supporting the communication and information aspects of the referral process. The third developmental step was to create a new working job description, that of the referral specialist.
Referral specialists are specialized patient care coordinators.
Recognizing the inherent value of that concept, we have further evolved the position to include consistent specialized accountability to provide advocacy and guidance in the necessary steps to guide the patient from initial contact through the entire process of registration, authorization, scheduling, and obtaining records. At the same time, the referral specialist provides a single point of contact for the patient and referring provider. The referral specialist role change required training in system accountability, data applications and financial guidance. Implementation of this system has occurred over a period of one year. Since special attention was dedicated to a data retrieval system to measure success, we are now producing data regarding the efficacy of the system.