Problem: Specialty outpatient clinics may use Connect Care as their record of care without fully implementing referral management processes that use the clinical information system. This is a problem if the clinic has indicated that it is "internal" for referrals but has not set up intake messaging pools, assigned staff to work-queue monitoring, or coordinated staff and physician contributions. Referring prescribers will generate referral orders that do not achieve the intended result.
Solution: Outpatient speciality services that use Connect Care as the record of care are "internal" referral resources. It is important that they have "receptor capacity" with appropriate use of referral intake messaging pools, work-queue tracking and triage processes. These clinics should reach out to the Connect Care Patient Access Team (ClinicalOperations-Patient.Access@ahs.ca) to confirm that they are referral-orders-ready.