The referral that cannot be booked
A management referral lands in the shared inbox as a Word attachment. The reason for referral says 'back problems, please advise'. There are no specific questions for the clinician, no job description, no absence history, and nothing to say whether the employee knows they have been referred. Your administrator emails the manager to ask. The manager is on leave.
Multiply that across a week of referrals from a dozen employers, each with its own version of the form, and a good part of your admin team's time goes on getting referrals into a state where an occupational health adviser can actually see the person.
The ones that do arrive complete tend to come from the same two or three HR teams who have learned what you need. Everyone else is relying on your administrators to fill the gaps by email, which works until the week three people are off.
Why managers keep sending thin referrals
Most line managers make one or two referrals a year. They do not know that a clinician can only answer the questions that are asked, or that a vague referral produces a vague report. The form they use is often an old version saved on a shared drive, and nothing stops them sending it half done.
- Each employer has its own form, and some managers use the previous provider's.
- Free text boxes invite 'see attached' or a single line.
- Nothing checks that the employee has been told about the referral before it is sent.
- HR sometimes rewrites the referral, sometimes forwards it untouched.
- Supporting documents such as the job description and absence record arrive separately, if at all.
What the incomplete referral costs you
The appointment is delayed while the gaps are chased, and the employer measures you on the time from referral to report, not from 'complete referral' to report. Clinicians spend the first part of the consultation establishing facts the manager should have supplied. Reports go back with caveats, and HR comes back with the questions they should have asked in the first place, which is a second piece of unpaid work.
| Missing item | What happens next |
|---|---|
| Specific questions | Report answers generic questions, HR asks follow-ups |
| Employee informed | Appointment cannot go ahead or starts awkwardly |
| Job role and duties | Clinician cannot comment properly on adjustments |
| Absence dates | Pattern of absence has to be taken from the employee |
| Budget or PO reference | Invoice for the referral is queried later |
How we build a referral route that arrives complete
- We set up a referral form for each employer, branded to them, with the fields and questions their contract requires.
- The form changes with the reason for referral, so a musculoskeletal referral, a mental health referral and a return to work review each prompt for the details that matter to that type.
- Managers choose specific questions from a list your clinicians have written, and can add their own, so the report has something concrete to answer.
- A required confirmation that the employee has been told, with the date and how, before the form can be submitted.
- Uploads for the job description, absence record and any previous reports, attached to the referral rather than sent separately.
- Where your contract says HR must approve a referral, it goes to the named HR contact for sign-off first.
- Complete referrals create the case in your clinical system through its API or an import, and trigger an appointment offer. Anything unclear goes to an exception list for your admin team.
We do not decide what a good referral looks like clinically. Your clinical lead sets the questions and the rules, and we build the form around them.
A week in the referral inbox afterwards
Referrals arrive with the questions, the job details and the consent confirmation already there. Your administrators book appointments instead of writing chasing emails. Clinicians read a proper referral before the consultation, and HR teams get reports that answer what they asked, because the form made them ask it.
You also get a clean timestamp for when each referral became complete, which settles arguments about turnaround at contract review.
Is your referral inbox like this?
- Referrals regularly arrive with no specific questions.
- Admin staff email managers to find out whether the employee knows.
- Several employers use different, outdated versions of the form.
- Clinicians spend consultation time collecting basic job and absence details.
- HR comes back after the report with questions that were never asked.