Referral Management and Analytics Tech Transforms Central Ohio Primary Care

The organization now is able to manage six times the number of referrals monthly at its central referral center – all without hiring more staff. As one of the largest physician-owned primary care groups in the U.S., with more than 450 providers across 80 practices serving more than 400,000 patients, Central Ohio Primary Care was dealing with a lack of connectivity and usable data with its fax- and phone-based referral intake system. "We did not have the ability to quickly obtain simple status updates on referrals through the scheduling process or even determine if they had been received on the specialist's end," said Ed Helvig, patient access manager at Central Ohio Primary Care. "By leveraging their referral management technology and analytics tools, our staff would have the ability to easily track referrals, follow up with them in a timely manner, and ultimately close the loop on patients whose care needs were now handled by a referred provider.

"We have been able to successfully connect the network of providers digitally and create a streamlined referral process that has increased efficiency, improved patient outcomes and lowered cost of care. "With the new streamlined referral-management process and software, PCPs, nearly 1,500 specialists, and care coordination teams in the COPC network have gained more insight and understanding into each patient's unique care plan to help the patient navigate to the next care setting and gained more time in their day to allot to other patients," he added. "We now have insight into key performance metrics in real time, such as referral response rate, patient decline reasons, average length to schedule a patient, and the all-important referral-to-appointment ratio, which allows our PCPs to close the loop of care after a patient has been seen by a specialist," Helvig noted. Central Ohio Primary Care has shifted away from fax-based referrals and now is digital, allowing staff to see measurable and improved metrics across performance and patient outcomes.