Referral sources are important for understanding how patients are introduced to your practice. When referral sources are properly identified for each patient, reports can show the best sources for generating patient leads.
Referral Sources are stored on the patient account in Patient Demographics.
In this article, you will learn how to:
- Make referral source obligatory field
- Add a custom referral source
- Add a Referring MD as a referral source
- Add a referral source from patient demographics
- Run a referral source report
>View Video Below<
Make Referral Source Obligatory Field
To ensure you capture how your patient first learned of your practice, you can make referral source an obligatory field in medical history. The provider also will be required to input referral source when completing medical history initiated on the patient history page.
To make referral source an obligatory field, go to Practice Account -> Medical History -> Demographic Info tab. Use the toggle button Mandatory Field to activate this requirement.
If Referral Source is an activated input field, patients will be able to input their referral source when completing medical history in the patient portal.
How to Add a Custom Referral Source
A custom referral source can be created in patient demographics either while creating a new patient or from the patient demographics in the individual patient history. Use the + sign to the right of the Referral field to manage your referral source list.
Select which referral sources to display and add custom referral sources using the + sign. Click on the pencil icon to edit and the 
icon to archive the custom referral source.
Note: If you archive a referral source that was already assigned in patient demographics to any patients, the system will automatically assign another referral source to patients. The archived referral source will also be removed from all reports and will be replaced with a referral source assigned by the system.
How to Add a Referring MD as a referral source
To add a provider as a referral source, they first have to be added as a contact.
In Calendar, click the 
icon to show all of the current contacts.
Click New Contact and fill out all of the requested information.
Under “Role (Optional)” be sure to select “Referring MD” and save the information for the new contact. This provider is now available to be selected as a referral source.
How to add a Referral Source in patient demographics
Adding Referral Source for a New Patient
When creating a new patient account, you can:
- Select a referral source for this patient
- Add a new referral source to the list
- Edit or archive a referral source
Adding or Editing Referral Source for an Existing Patient
To edit the referral source for an existing patient, click the pencil icon to access their patient demographics. Since the referral source is intended to document how the patient initially learned about your practice, the referral source should only be edited if it is inaccurate.
Note: It is no longer possible to add or edit the referral source for an existing patient from the appointment window.
Verifying Patient's Referral Source
A patient's referral source can be verified from the following locations:
1. Appointment window
2. The individual patient history
3. Patient demographics
How to Run Referral Source Reports
Referral Appointment and Referral Conversion reports can be found in Practice Analysis under Analysis Reports -> Other Reports. Both reports are available in both PDF and CSV formats.
Referral Appointment Report
The Referral Appointment report provides data on the productivity of each referral source for providing patient appointments.
Note: The Consultation and Procedure appointments no longer require having the same Visit Reason in order to render results in this report.
Referral Conversion Report
The Referral Conversion report provides data on the number of leads produced by each referral source as well as the success rate of converting those leads into patients.
Note: The Consultation and Procedure appointments no longer require having the same Visit Reason in order to render results in this report.
Video
Content Timelines per Minute:
00:00 - 00:05 - Introduction
00:06 - 00:58 - Making referral source an obligatory field
00:59 - 1:40 - Add/edit the referral source for an existing patient
1:41 - 1:54 - Add the referral source for a new patient
1:55 - 2:44 - Creating a custom referral source
2:45 - 3:13 - Edit/ archive a custom referral source
3:14 - 4:10 - Mark MD as a referral source
4:11 - 4:54 - Generating referral appointment & referral conversion reports