Referral Letters

Referral letters can be generated in multiple places within EZDERM depending on what type of referral letter you want to send:

1. An outgoing referral letter to refer your patient to another physician/specialist.
2. A thank you letter to the referring physician that the patient was sent to you by.

Outgoing Referral Letter

At the bottom of the Physical Exam screen in a patient’s Progress Note, tap on the Requests icon to generate an outgoing referral letter. For example, if you refer your patient out to a Mohs surgeon or a plastic surgeon, you would use these referral templates.

Once you tap on the Referral Icon, you will select "Add New Referral." From here you can choose a physician from your Contacts list, select the related problem from the list of diagnoses, add a custom note that will appear in the body of the letter, and the type of referral you wish to send (this last field is not required).

Once you tap Done to generate your letter, you can send it out and track it via the Inbox (in the Performed, Pending Results, and Pending Review folders). You will first need to place the referral from the Performed folder, by tapping on the edit button in the top right corner, selecting the Referral order (which will highlight the order in blue), then tapping the share icon in the top right and selecting Place Order. Please note, this action will automatically save a copy of the letter to the patient’s Documents in the Correspondences folder. 

Once a correspondence for the referral comes back from the referred physician, that document can be uploaded into the system and tied to the outstanding referral order by using the Import Results functionality on the PMS, and linking them to the original Referral Order you sent out. This allows you to keep a paper trail of your outgoing referrals.

This will also move the referral order into the Pending Review folder for the provider to review, create any necessary To Do’s for, and sign off on.

Generating referrals from the Referral Icon in the Physical Exam will count towards MACRA's Promoting Interoperability (PI) category.

Thank You Referral Letter

You can generate thank you referrals in the Progress Note by tapping on the Paper Plane Icon in the right-hand icon sidebar. This allows you to follow up with the physician who originally referred the patient to you.

Once you select the Paper Airplane Icon, you will then tap on the red "+" sign in the top left-hand corner, and select General Referral Letter. The system will generate your letter, which can be edited by tapping into the body of text. You can also select the referring physician from your Contacts list, by tapping the "To" field at the top of the screen. Once completed, tap the Preview button in the top right-hand corner to generate a PDF preview of the letter. You can then tap the share icon in the top right-hand corner, and then select Save to Documents to save a copy of the letter to the patient’s Correspondences folder in their Documents. From this menu, you can also use the Send Fax button to send the document as an outgoing fax. 

As a provider, you can also generate your own letter templates, such as letters to employers or schools, by going into Settings > My Profile > Letter Templates. The templates created here will only be available from within the Paper Airplane Icon. For more on how to generate Letter Templates and send them, see this article.

Pathology Thank You

You can also generate a thank you referral letter within the Pending Review workflow. Once you select an order, you can scroll down and select "Add Referral" under the red Referral header. This will generate a letter documenting the received results.

When the Results have been reviewed, the referral letter will automatically be moved to the Referrals folder in the Inbox. However, it is important to note that the letter has not been sent yet. To send this letter, you can go to the Referrals folder in the Inbox, tap on the referral to edit the letter, select Preview in the top right-hand corner to view it as a PDF, and then click the export icon in the upper right-hand corner to send the PDF. The letter is also automatically saved in the Correspondences folder of the patient's Documents if you would like to send it out from there. 

Once everything has been addressed and the letter sent out, you can remove the letter from your Inbox by opening the Referrals folder, tap the share icon in the top right-hand corner, select the referral, then hitting the Share button and selecting "Mark As Completed."