How Central Intake Automation Can Revolutionize Patient Referral Management

As health systems seek to improve patient outcomes, standardize, and streamline operations, one area of focus is referral management. The referral process can be complex, time-consuming, and prone to errors, which can lead to delays in care and dissatisfaction among patients and healthcare providers as well as care inequities. As a method to address these concerns health systems are implementing central intakes which can ensure all referrals sent to providers have been complete, triaged, and validated. A key element to the implementation and optimization of a central intake is technology automation. 

Central Intake Automation Overview  

Central intake for patient referrals is a process by which a centralized team manages and coordinates patient referrals across different healthcare providers, services, and facilities. This process involves processing all referrals through a single point, triaging referrals, and coordinating care between referring and receiving healthcare providers. 

At Strata Health, we have developed an automated electronic referral solution with central intake capabilities that streamlines the patient referral process, reduces wait times, and improves communication and collaboration among healthcare providers. Our solution provides a single point of entry for clients, families, and healthcare providers to access and refer to the right services at the right time.  

Some of the key features that make our solution extremely effective at streamlining referrals include: 

• Navigation & clinical decision support: Central intake staff can easily assess, triage, prioritize and route referrals from a single platform, while managing wait times on a prioritized basis. ALL available services are known and considered, and our automated matching algorithms can support better, faster, more accurate referral decisions. 
• Automatic patient prioritization: To improve fairness in wait list management and support better patient outcomes, referrals are automatically sorted and ranked based on priority, ensuring the patients with the most urgent needs are referred to the services they require quickly, without delay. 
• Automated alerts: Never let a patient fall through the cracks again. Strata Health’s automated alerts notify users when a referral has become stagnant or actions are required to process a referral. 

The Benefits of Central Intake Automation  

With central intake automation, healthcare providers can: 

1. Reduce wait times: With streamlined processes and automated workflows, patient referrals can be processed more quickly and efficiently, reducing wait times for patients. 

2. Improve communication and collaboration: Central intake automation enables real-time communication and collaboration among healthcare providers, allowing for better coordination of care and more effective communication with patients. 

3. Increase efficiency and accuracy: By automating the referral process, healthcare providers can reduce the risk of errors and improve the accuracy of patient information, leading to more effective care and better outcomes. 

In addition to these benefits, central intake automation can also provide healthcare organizations with valuable data and analytics on patient referral patterns, wait times, and other key metrics. This data can be used to identify areas for improvement and optimize processes for better patient outcomes and operational efficiency. 

In conclusion, central intake automation is a powerful tool for revolutionizing patient referral management in healthcare. By streamlining processes, improving communication and collaboration, and increasing efficiency and accuracy, healthcare providers can deliver better care and improve patient outcomes.  

Contact Strata Health today to learn more about how our central intake automation solution can benefit your organization.