Answer · A short answer
What to do when referral faxes pile up
Count the pile and date the oldest referral. Sort out the urgent ones first with a short written checklist. Then split the work: one person files, one calls urgent families, one works the routine list. The same staff get through it in about half the time.
First, find out how bad it is
Write down three numbers: how many referrals are waiting, the date on the oldest one, and how many arrive on a normal day. If your clinic has a deadline for urgent referrals, such as 14 days, work out how many days the oldest one has left.
These numbers tell you whether you can catch up with the hours you have, or whether the pile will keep growing until you add time to intake.
Pull the urgent ones out
Ask a clinician for the short list of findings that make a referral urgent. Most clinics land on five to ten. Print it and have someone go through the pile looking only for those. Urgent referrals get called today. Everything else can wait for the routine list.
This step also removes the need for one expert to read every fax. Anyone with the checklist can sort the pile the same way.
Split one job into three
Piles grow when each referral is one long task: file it, read it, decide, call, leave a voicemail, write a note, then start again. Nobody gets into a rhythm.
Give filing, urgent calls and routine calls each an owner and a block of the day. At one clinic, 100 referrals went from 5 to 6 hours of an experienced person's time to 2 to 3 hours with this split alone.
Keep it from coming back
Once the pile is gone, check the same three numbers every Friday. A pile that starts to grow again shows up there weeks before anyone complains.
Fix the way referrals and families reach you too: one correct phone number and email on your website, and no voicemail inbox that nobody checks. Fewer lanes in means fewer things to lose.
See how many days your pile has left. Start the backlog clock.
Keep reading
- BreakdownFrom 2–3 weeks to same-day contact
- ToolWhat your no-shows cost
- ToolWhen your referral pile breaks the deadline
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